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.
