After an explosive week of court hearings, during which the former head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security, Kamchybek Tashiev, I got into an argument with a witness and a video of his apparent interrogation was leaked, the case was – once again – closed to public scrutiny.
On June 22, prosecutors filed a motion to close the trial of a number of prominent politicians and former government officials accused of attempted coup d’état and abuse of power, allegedly in connection with the so-called “Letter of 75.”
In addition to Tashiev, former Prosecutor General Kurmankul Zulushev, former Chairman of the Jogorku Kenesh Nurlanbek Tourgunbek uulu, former Deputy Minister of the Interior Kursan Asanov, former Ambassador to Uzbekistan Emilbek Uzakbayev, former Prosecutor General and MP Kurmankul Zuluchev and others were indicted.
Not all of the defendants are in custody. Tashiev, Turgunbek uulu and Zulushev – all accused of the more serious charge of plotting a coup in addition to abuse of power – are released on bail. The other defendants, accused only of abuse of power, are in detention.
The case was initially dismissed by the court, but was made public on June 15 at the request of the defendants – including Tashiev.
At the June 15 hearing, the main defendants accused of coup plotting – Tashiev, Turgunbek uulu and Zuluchev – sat at tables with their lawyers, while the other defendants, those in custody, were relegated to the glass “jar” of the courtroom.
And then Tachiev questioned a witness, in the presence of the exchange filmed by the press. It turns out that transparency involves the irritating glare of bright lights and public criticism of a person’s actions.
The next day a video of Tashiev’s apparent interrogation has mysteriously leaked, with officials shrugging their shoulders in response. Since the defendants themselves had asked for “maximum transparency”, Sultan Makilov, head of the press service of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry, said: suggested in an interviewthe broadcast of the video of the interrogation cannot be considered deliberately orchestrated.
In a June 22 editorial, Kloop noted that thanks to the decision to open the trial on June 15, “the people of Kyrgyzstan were able to see how the suspects behaved in court.”
But it was the journalists that the judge reprimanded. According to Kloop, “After [the June 15] During the hearing, the judge criticized the journalists and said they should not be present in court, and even invited them to come to his office so he could speak to them about their “behavior.”
According to RFE/RL Kyrgyz ServiceTashiev, Turgunbek uulu, Uzakbaev and Zulushev supported the prosecution’s request to the judge to close the track again. Prosecutors justified their request by arguing that there would be “secret witnesses.”
Asanov would have opposed and been removed from the courtroom for “disturbing public order”. It is worth noting that when Tashiev insulted a witness – even going so far as to bring up his father’s murder in 2005 – he was not removed from the courtroom.