On July 5, the Bishkek City Court amended the verdict in the case of activist Melis Aspekov, who was sentenced in March by the Pervomaisky District Court of the capital to 7 years in prison.
“Melis Aspekov was found guilty under the article “Fraud” of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, but the court did not impose a sentence on him due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The activist was sentenced to 6 years in prison. The rest of the verdict was upheld,” the court said.
The decision to recover more than 23 million soms from the convict in favor of the victims was also upheld.
The activist himself claims that his guilt has not been proven and that the case against him was initiated for political reasons.
At one of the court hearings in June this year in the Bishkek City Court, Melis Aspekov criticized President Sadyr Japarov and stated that during the presidential elections, the incumbent Japarov received $10 million from former President Sooronbai Jeenbekov and spent $1 million of this amount on campaigning in the Chui region.
As confirmation of his words, he handed over the receipts of nine people to the lawyer Nurbek Toktakunov, who published these documents on his Facebook page. In them, the recipients of money indicated their first and last name, as well as how much money they received. Four of those whose names are listed on the papers were registered by the Central Election Commission as Sadyr Japarov’s proxies in the elections.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that in order to verify these statements, pre-trial proceedings were initiated under Article 192 (“Bribery of voters”) of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, but it is not known how it ended. Melis Aspekov himself stated that this case was closed.
President Sadyr Japarov and Chairman of the State Committee for National Security Kamchybek Tashiev responded to the accusations of imprisoned Melis Aspekov. For their part, they stated that during the elections he covered himself in the name of the head of state in order to collect money from businessmen.
On June 21 of this year, Aspekov, at a meeting of the Bishkek City Court, where his case was considered, announced his intention to go on a hunger strike.
He said this after he expressed dissatisfaction with the judge and demanded to change him. On July 2, Ombudsman Atyr Abdrakhmatova visited activist Melis Aspekov in pretrial detention center № 1 and later reported that the activist had suspended the dry hunger strike. She also noted that he also complained about his health related to the fact that after the heart surgery he did not undergo appropriate rehabilitation.
Recall that Melis Aspekov was detained in January 2021. According to investigators, under the threat of an inspection of the work of the state enterprise “Kyrgyz Temir Zholu” by the State Service for Combating Economic Crime and the organization of rallies against the management of the enterprise, he extorted $250,000. In May of the same year, a criminal case was opened against him under the article on fraud.
During and after the October 2020 events, Melis Aspekov was among the supporters of Sadyr Japarov. And although he did not hold an official position, he was considered one of the close associates of the head of state. During the presidential elections, he held a number of meetings and events in the Chui region, actively campaigning for local residents to vote for Sadyr Japarov.
Activist Ulan Juraev was also arrested along with Melis Aspekov. He was later released under house arrest after making a deal with the investigation. On May 25, it became known that the Pervomaisky District Court found him guilty and fined him $3,270 (260,000 soms).
Also in April of this year, Azamat Aspekov, the brother of Melis Aspekov, was detained and was left in custody until the end of the investigation. As noted by the police, an application was received against him for receiving $ 44,000 for the purchase of a land plot on the territory of the capital’s Sary-Ozon market. According to investigators, having taken possession of the money, the man did not fulfill his promise and disappeared without explanation. In this regard, a criminal case was initiated under Article 209 (“Fraud”) of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, under which the suspect was placed in a temporary detention center of the Bishkek Main Internal Affairs Directorate.
