Crossroads Asia | Politics | Central Asia

Now Open, Tashiev Trial Proceeds in Kyrgyzstan 

The first hearings featured a verbal argument between Tashiev and a witness and were followed by a leak of interrogation videos.

On June 15, the trial of the former head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security, Kamchybek Tashiev, and several other defendants – allegedly associated with the “Letter of 75” – was declassified at the request of the defendants. Now open, the trial is unfurling in the press as it is in the courtroom, including the leak of apparent interrogation videos. 

The “Letter of 75” matter relates to an appeal signed by 75 public figures that urged Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov to call for an early presidential election. Some Kyrgyz media outlets have taken to referring to the letter as the “letter of the 75 aksakals” – literally “white beards,” a term for male elders. The letter began circulating two days before Tashiev’s dramatic dismissal in February and is at the core of the state’s allegations that Tashiev, and a number of other individuals, were plotting an coup.

In late April, Tashiev and the other defendants were charged under Article 326 (“Violent seizure or retention of power, as well as an attempt to violently change the constitutional order”) and Article 337 (“Abuse of office”) of the Kyrgyz Criminal Code. Among the defendants are former Prosecutor General Kurmankul Zulushev and former Speaker of the Zhogorku Kenesh Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu. Turgunbek uulu resigned a week after Tashiev’s dismissal in February. Another defendant is Emilbek Uzakbaev, who served in various positions in the Kyrgyz government, with his last significant post being as ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2012-2016.

The trial began in May and was initially classified as secret. Although an initial request by the defense to declassify the proceedings was denied in May, the defendants continued to demand a public trial and on June 15 the court granted that request.

The first open hearings considered, among other matters, a motion from Uzakbaev’s defense insisting on a medical evaluation for the 70-year-old man and requesting that his pretrial detention be altered. Although some defendants, like Uzakbaev, are being held in pretrial detention, Tashiev is not. Photos from the courtroom also show several defendants in the usual glass cage, but Tashiev sitting at a table. 

The trial proceeded with witnesses largely concerned with the reception of the so-called Letter of 75 in February by members of parliament and featured a verbal clash between Tashiev and a witness.

The state called Elvira Surabaldieva, a member of parliament, to testify regarding the circulation of the Letter of 75. Surabaldieva shared her opinion that she viewed the letter as an attempted coup, repeating a statement she had made in a in April interview with a Kazakh journalist.

Amid Surabaldieva’s testimony and questioning by lawyers on both sides, Tashiev chimed in to argue with the witness, reminding........

© The Diplomat