Kyrgyzstan charges ousted ex-security boss with coup plot

Kyrgyzstan authorities have charged eight people, including powerful ex-security chief Kamchybek Tashiev, with plotting to seize power ​from President Sadyr Japarov, who has consolidated power in ‌the historically volatile central Asian country.

Tashiev had ruled the former Soviet republic of 7 million in a de facto tandem with Japarov since the pair ​were swept to power in street protests in 2020, ​until his abrupt ouster in January , News.az reports, citing Reuters.

Tashiev's lawyer, Ikramidin Aytkulov, confirmed ⁠the charges in a post on Facebook, saying the trial ​would be held behind closed doors with reporting banned.

There was no ​information as to the identities of the other seven people charged, but several ousted officials seen as allies of Tashiev, including a former speaker of ​parliament, have been interrogated alongside him in recent weeks.

The charges carry ​a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Tashiev has made no public ‌comment ⁠on the accusations.

The move against Tashiev, an influential powerbroker in Kyrgyzstan’s ethnically mixed south, could risk fresh instability.

A resource-poor, mountainous country heavily dependent on remittances from migrants working in Russia, Kyrgyzstan has ​traditionally been the ​most unstable of ⁠the Central Asian republics, with presidents driven from office by protests in 2005, 2010 and 2020.

Japarov ​and Tashiev’s partnership, which united rival elites from the ​fractious ⁠country’s north and south, brought tightened political control, including crackdowns on the opposition and independent media.

The pair were buoyed by accelerated economic growth, ⁠among ​the fastest in Central Asia, partly due ​to Russian trade routes redirected via Kyrgyzstan after Western sanctions over the Ukraine war.

News.Az 

By Faig Mahmudov