Kyrgyzstan: ex-President left the country for fear of criminal prosecution

Sooronbai Jeenbekov and his wife left Kyrgyzstan. Information about this was confirmed by the press secretary of the former President Tolgonai Stamalieva.

It’s reported that ex-President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbai Jeenbekov and his wife flew to Turkey from the airport “Manas” the day before. Next, he will go to the city of Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) to make the Umrah (small hajj).

It’s noted that Jeenbekov is making this trip on the invitation of the King of Saudi Arabia. It was already planned in November last year. The small hajj should last a little over 10 days, after that Jeenbekov and his wife will return to the Kyrgyz Republic.

However, there is another version. In particular, political scientist Mars Sariev believes that Jeenbekov could have left the country because of the danger of criminal prosecution, which he told ACCA about.

“A criminal case was opened against Sooronbai Jeenbekov. Participants of the October events wrote a statement against him and, as far as I know, a criminal case was opened. In addition, before that, Jeenbekov was summoned to court over $ 1 million that was found in Zilaliev’s safe deposit box. The latter said that the money belonged to the ex-President. I think there was a very high probability that they could bring him to justice in one of the cases,” the political scientist said.

In his opinion, the political situation in Kyrgyzstan is developing in such a way that the arrest of Jeenbekov would greatly raise the rating of the current President.

“In any case, a very unfavorable situation was developing for Jeenbekov. Most likely, he will not return to his homeland in the near future,” concluded Mars Sariev.