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Minsk rejects Kyrgyzstan’s fresh request for extradition of Bakiyev brothers

The Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office has rejected Kyrgyzstan’s fresh request for extraditing former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his brother Zhanybek Bakiyev, Kyrgyz Prosecutor General Aida Salyanova said on April 12.

Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office sent the request in February, saying that the pair should be handed over for serving their recently imposed prison sentences.

The Belarusian authorities expectedly turned down the latest request, insisting that the brothers’ prosecution was politically motivated.

On February 12, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who enjoys refugee status in Belarus, was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison on charges of abuse of power, while his brother Zhanybek, who also apparently stays in Belarus, was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of multiple murder.

The ousted Kyrgyz president continues to stay in Belarus despite the new Kyrgyz government’s repeated requests for his extradition. He fled Kyrgyzstan after being overthrown and resurfaced in Minsk in late April 2010. He was offered refuge by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who said later that he had received Mr. Bakiyev as a head of state, not as an outlaw.

In an interview with Reuters in May 2010, Mr. Lukashenka made it clear that he would reject an extradition request for Mr. Bakiyev. "Such a request would be hopeless and humiliating for the interim government [in Kyrgyzstan]," he said. "The president of Kyrgyzstan is under the protection of the Belarusian state and its president."

On August 24, 2012, Kyrgyzstan recalled its ambassador to Belarus, Erik Asanaliev, "for consultations" over Minsk’s refusal to extradite Zhanybek Bakiyev.

The ambassador was recalled after Zhanybek Bakiyev was spotted and photographed on a downtown street in Minsk by Belarusian opposition activist Mikhail Pashkevich. Zhanybek Bakiyev, who was the head of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s presidential guard service, was photographed along with Tahir Rysaliev, the former deputy head of the presidential guard service who was a fellow university student of Zhanybek Bakiyev; and Rustam Sayduev, a friend of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son Maksim. All the three were the prime suspects in the murder in March 2009 of Medet Sadyrkulov, a former head of the Presidential Administration; Sergei Slepchenko, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Kubat Sulaymanov, the driver of the car they were in.

Zhanybek Bakiyev is believed to have given the order to shoot at a crowd of protesters in Bishkek in April 2010, which left more than 80 people dead.

According to unconfirmed reports, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was granted Belarusian citizenship as far back as 2010. In 2012, he reportedly bought a house on the outskirts of Minsk for $2 million. //BelaPAN