After an explosive week of court hearings, in which former head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security, Kamchybek Tashiev, got into a shouting match with a witness and a video of his apparent interrogation leaked, the case has – once again – been 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 charged with attempting to stage a coup and abuse of office, allegedly in relation to the so-called “Letter of 75.”
Besides Tashiev, former Prosecutor General Kurmankul Zulushev, former Speaker of the Zhogorku Kenesh Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu, former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Kursan Asanov, former Ambassador to Uzbekistan Emilbek Uzakbaev, former General Prosecutor and MP Kurmankul Zulushev, and others have been charged.
Not all of the defendants are in custody. Tashiev, Turgunbek uulu, and Zulushev – all charged with the more serious accusation of plotting a coup in addition to abuse of office – are free on bail. The other defendants, charged with abuse of office only, are in custody.
The case was initially classified by the court, but opened to the public on June 15 at the request of the defendants – including Tashiev.
During the June 15 hearing, the main defendants charged with plotting a coup – Tashiev, Turgunbek uulu, and Zulushev – sat at tables with their lawyers, while the other defendants, those being held in custody, were relegated to the courtroom’s glass “fishbowl.”
And then Tashiev shouted at a witness, with the exchange filmed by the press present. It turns out that transparency involves the irritating glare of bright lights and public criticism over one’s actions.
The next day a video of Tashiev’s apparent interrogation mysteriously leaked, with officials effectively shrugging in response. Since the defendants themselves had asked for “maximum transparency,” Sultan Makilov, head of the press service for the Kyrgyz Ministry of Internal Affairs, suggested in an interview, the release of the interrogation video could not be framed as deliberately orchestrated.
In an editorial on June 22, Kloop remarked that due to the decision to open the trial on June 15, “Kyrgyzstanis were able to see how suspects behave in court.”
But it was the journalists that the judge reprimanded. According to Kloop, “After [the June 15] hearing, the judge criticized the journalists and stated that they should not be in court, and even invited them to come to his office so that he could talk to them about their ‘behavior.’”
According to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Tashiev, Turgunbek uulu, Uzakbaev, and Zulushev supported the prosecution’s request to the judge to close the trail once more. The prosecutors justified their request by arguing that there would be “secret witnesses.”
Asanov reportedly objected and was removed from the courtroom for “disturbing the peace.” Note, when Tashiev shouted down a witness – even going so far as to bring up her father’s 2005 murder – he was not removed from the courtroom.
