BISHKEK, May 15 (RAPSI) – Kyrgyzstan has requested an explanation from the United States as to why a US investigation into Maxim Bakiyev, the son of the former Kyrgyz President, has been closed, Daniyar Mukashev, a Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry official told reporters on Wednesday.
Bakiyev had been accused of securities fraud in the United States.
Bakiyev, who headed the Central Development, Innovation and Investment Agency in Kyrgyzstan under his father's presidency, was arrested in the UK where he had been living since fleeing Kyrgyzstan after a coup there in April 2010. The US Department of Justice accused him of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruction of justice, and sought to extradite him.
A London court released him on bail until an extradition hearing scheduled for May 13. However, it was revealed at the end of last week that the US authorities had dismissed the investigation for lack of sufficient evidence to file charges.
Bakiyev has been sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison in Kyrgyzstan for corruption.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Minister earlier expressed his disappointment with the US decision to US Ambassador Pamela Spratlen, saying that “one of the key principles of democracy – the supremacy of law and ensuring offender accountability – has obviously failed.”
Kyrgyz political analysts suspect that the US demand to extradite Bakiyev and his subsequent freedom from prosecution are political retaliation against Bishkek, following President Almazbek Atambayev's decision to close a US military airbase from the country in 2014.
