Askar Akayev
The State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan (GKNB) announced that the wanted ex-president of the country Askar Akayev was brought to Bishkek. He was handed over to an interdepartmental investigation team.
Akayev is suspected of corruption at the Kumtor gold mine.
Askar Akayev was President of the Kyrgyz SSR since 1990 and then President of Kyrgyzstan until the Tulip Revolution in March 2005. After that, he left the country.
In Kyrgyzstan, Akayev and other former high-ranking officials decided to prosecute for corruption when concluding a general agreement on the Kumtor project in 1992, amending it in 1994, as well as during the restructuring of the general agreement with Cameco in 2003 year, the State Committee for National Security recalled.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, in the period from 1992 to 2019, certain officials and management of Kyrgyzaltyn OJSC, “created an illegal and stable relationship” with representatives of the Canadian company Cameco, Centerra Gold Inc., as well as Kumtor Operating Company CJSC and CJSC Kumtor Gold Company “,” in order to illegally obtain material and other benefits, concluded agreements that were obviously unfavorable for Kyrgyzstan on the development of the Kumtor gold deposit.
During the investigation, the State Committee for National Security actively worked on “restoring historical justice in terms of bringing Akayev to criminal responsibility by bringing him to the territory of the republic.”
In September 2012, the then ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan, Esengul Omuraliev, expressed confidence that Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who succeeded him as president, could return to their homeland if they asked for forgiveness from fellow citizens and the people would forgive them.
