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Kyrgyzstan appeals to Belarus to extradite Bakiyev brothers to serve their prison sentences

The Prosecutor General's Office of Kyrgyzstan has appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus to extradite former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his brother Zhanybek Bakiyev from Belarus to serve their recently imposed prison sentences.

On February 26, the Bishkek garrison's military court notified the Prosecutor General's Office of Kyrgyzstan that the sentences against the Bakiyev brothers took effect four days earlier, according to the Office's press center.

The extradition request has been filed in accordance with the CIS Convention on Legal Assistance in Civil, Family and Criminal Cases, the press center said.

On February 12, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who enjoys refugee status in Belarus, was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison on charges of abuse of power, while his brother Zhanybek, who also apparen

The ousted Kyrgyz president continues to stay in Belarus despite the new Kyrgyz government's repeated requests for his extradition. He fled Kyrgyzstan after being overthrown and resurfaced in Minsk in late April 2010. He was offered refuge by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who said later that he had received Mr. Bakiyev as a head of state, not as an outlaw.

In an interview with Reuters in May 2010, Mr. Lukashenka made it clear that he would reject an extradition request for Mr. Bakiyev. "Such a request would be hopeless and humiliating for the interim government [in Kyrgyzstan]," he said. "The president of Kyrgyzstan is under the protection of the Belarusian state and its president."

On August 24, 2012, Kyrgyzstan recalled its ambassador to Belarus, Erik Asanaliev, "for consultations" over Minsk's refusal to extradite Zhanybek Bakiyev. The ambassador was recalled after Zhanybek Bakiyev was spotted and photographed on a downtown street in Minsk by Belarusian opposition activist Mikhail Pashkevich. Zhanybek Bakiyev, who was the head of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s presidential guard service, was photographed along with Tahir Rysaliev, the former deputy head of the presidential guard service who was a fellow university student of Zhanybek Bakiyev; and Rustam Sayduev, a friend of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son Maksim. All the three were the prime suspects in the murder in March 2009 of Medet Sadyrkulov, a former head of the Presidential Administration; Sergei Slepchenko, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Kubat Sulaymanov, the driver of the car they were in.

Zhanybek Bakiyev is believed to have given the order to shoot at a crowd of protesters in Bishkek in April 2010, which left more than 80 people dead.

According to unconfirmed reports, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was granted Belarusian citizenship as far back as 2010. In 2012, he reportedly bought a house on the outskirts of Minsk for $2 million.

Minsk's refusal to extradite Kurmanbek Bakiyev is not a problem in the relationship between Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Lukashenka said in December 2012.

"The problem of Bakiyev is now no more a problem in our relations," he said. "Why do you need Bakiyev? The man lives his life. He left. Everything can happen. He raises his children."

Moreover, Mr. Lukashenka said that the current Kyrgyz authorities should transfer the pension of the former Kyrgyz president to Belarus. "Transfer his pension here," he said. "They are said to have imputed it but don't transfer it."

Mr. Lukashenka also said that Mr. Bakiyev's children had already learned the Belarusian language.

"I was not a friend of Bakiyev. He was a friend of Putin and Nazarbayev," Mr. Lukashenka said, recalling how the former Kyrgyz president had found himself in Belarus. "He phones and tells me tearfully: 'Please take my children.' I say, "Come here along with the children,'" Mr. Lukashenka said.