Kyrgyzstan: President appointed his lawyer to head the Supreme Court
On February 2, the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov signed the decree on the appointment of Zamirbek Bazarbekov as Chairman of the Supreme Court of the republic. His tenure of office will be 5 years.
At first glance, the appointment is quite justified. The current Chairman of the Supreme Court has extensive experience in this area. He started his career as a defense lawyer, then at the end of 2020 he was appointed head of the judicial reform and legality department of the presidential administration, and in June last year he became a judge of the Supreme Court. However, after the appointment of Bazarbekov as Chairman of the Supreme Court, rumors spread in society that career growth wasn’t at all connected with his professional qualities, but with a high-ranking patron. After all, Zamirbek Bazarbekov was Sadyr Japarov’s lawyer in 2016. And his career went up precisely with the coming to power of his former client.
It should be noted that according to the procedure, under the new Constitution, the Chairman is appointed by the President with the consent of the deputies of Parliament, based on the proposal of the Council of judges. In this case, Bazarbekov’s candidacy was proposed by the head of state himself. 82 deputies supported the President’s protégé, and only one voted against.
This is not the first time that Sadyr Japarov’s personal attitude affects the future of officials. So, at least, let’s pay attention to the new head of the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan Kubanychbek Bokontaev. His candidacy was approved for the post by the Parliament’s Economic and Fiscal Policy Committee on September 29, after his predecessor, Tolkunbek Abdygulov, resigned.
On the one hand, Bokontaev has quite a lot of experience in the banking sector, and he even served as Deputy Chairman of the National Bank for four years from 2006 to 2010. At the same time, an impressive trail of scandals stretches behind him. Among others, the most interesting is the one that is associated with the withdrawal of money from Issyk-Kul Investment Bank. The Prosecutor General’s Office accused the following persons of embezzling money and raider seizure: some employees from AsiaUniversalBank (supporters of the Bakiyevs), the sister of the incumbent President Raikul Japarova, Marat Alapaev (former head of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic) and Kubanychbek Bokontaev. As a result, Bokontaev wasn’t charged, but his testimony formed the basis of the guilty verdict against Alapaev. After 11 years, Bokontaev retracted his testimony, claiming pressure on him from investigators. The Supreme Court announced the review of this case due to newly emerging circumstances on September 16, 2021, and already on September 29, his candidacy was approved for the post of head of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic.
It isn’t known for sure whether Bokontaev’s testimony influenced the fate of Raikul Japarova, but in January of this year, the sentence to 10 years in prison for complicity in the legalization of proceeds from crime against her in Issyk-Kul Investment Bank case was canceled. Is this a coincidence? The President himself took this outcome in the case as fair, because he always stated that the case against his sister was a political order.
However, as people who, are pleasing to the head of state, get new positions, so people, who are objectionable to him, lose their positions. Thus, in July 2021, judge of the Supreme Court Janyl Mambetali, who had earlier sentenced Sadyr Japarov to prison, was dismissed. The decision was made by Parliament. As reported by representatives of the President, the reason was the submitted application of her own free will. And, if it was really so, then why did the judge herself not come to Parliament to consider this issue?
