BISHKEK -- In the past, Kyrgyz notables would pay tribute to Kyrgyz crime lord Kamchibek Kolbaev's mother -- Maya Alieva -- at lavish birthday bashes.
But now the 75-year-old Alieva has lived to see the indignity of a courtroom hearing in her bedroom as the state steps up its bid to recover what it says are her slain son’s ill-gotten gains.
The sight of Alieva apparently bedbound in her family home as a judge looms over her has been a jarring one for many Kyrgyz.
The U.S.-sanctioned Kolbaev -- a reputed trafficker of heroin and racketeer par excellence -- was once one of the Central Asian country’s most powerful men.
That continued until he was gunned down on October 4, 2023, in a security operation that apparently even surprised President Sadyr Japarov.
“I, like you, heard about it first from the Internet,” Japarov claimed in his first comments on the killing some two weeks after it took place.
“The case has been transferred to the Military Prosecutor's Office to conduct an investigation into the operation…[and] determine whether it was legal,” Japarov said, adding that “in developed countries, there is no such thing as a criminal world.”
No Quarter Given
There might have been more than one reason for Japarov’s rather ambiguous reaction to this very important event.
Firstly, as indicated by the large turnout for Kolbaev’s funeral -- in Japarov’s home region of Issyk-Kul, no less -- Kolbaev had a lot of supporters.
Secondly, whether right or wrong, Japarov was widely believed by many politicians and public figures as having risen to power in 2020 with support from Kolbaev’s group. Dancing on the grave of a former ally is hardly a good look, whoever he is.
Finally, Japarov may actually not have ordered the operation, since it is his very powerful national security chief, Kamchybek Tashiev, who has taken the lead in fighting organized crime.
Tashiev has also been explaining to Kyrgyz since last year why the trial of the septuagenarian Alieva had to go ahead.
“A number of cars are registered not to [Kolbaev] himself but to members of his criminal group, in his relatives’ names, in his mother's name. Why would Kolbaev's mother need five or six armored cars?” Tashiev asked at a press conference in November, promising a trial "soon."
That time has arrived.
A July 22 photo of Alieva in her bed under the watch of Judge Tilektesh Begaliev was taken by Alieva's lawyer, Baktybek Zhumashev, and is quite powerful.
She now faces charges of laundering more than a dozen assets registered in her name, with prosecutors last week demanding a 10-year sentence in addition to a confiscation of property.
“She can barely walk. The most she can do is a 10-centimeter step," complained Zhumashev, who has appealed to the court to carry out psychological and medical tests to determine her fitness to stand trial.
"I seriously doubt that she understands everything. During the hearing, she did not understand what was being discussed. She could not even answer questions about where she lives and where she was born; her children answered for her,” Zhumashev said.
Zhumashev and the Kolbaev family also cite medical records stating that Alieva had suffered a stroke in 2014.
The prosecutor in her case, Kunduz Akunova, is dismissive of those arguments.
“Since then, she has been participating in plenty of celebrations," said Akunova. "She was of sound mind then. Are we to consider that suddenly, overnight, she became incompetent?”
The State Taketh Away
The most famous of those celebrations was Alieva’s 70th birthday party in 2018.
Footage showed several Kyrgyz notables at the event, including the current head of Kyrgyzstan’s cabinet, Akylbek Japarov, a lawmaker at the time.
When the video surfaced online last year, Tashiev suggested that Akylbek Japarov -- no relation to the president -- would not be punished for that transgression.
But the national security boss has also made it clear that the days of politicians hobnobbing with gangsters and their families are over.
After Kolbaev was gunned down in broad daylight at a gastro pub in Bishkek last fall by state security officers, dozens of known associates of the Thieves-in-Law criminal group, as well as other gang members, appeared in videos renouncing their ties to the criminal world.
At the end of last month, Customs Service head Samat Isabekov announced that 14 employees of the service had been fired over their alleged ties to Kolbaev since his killing.
Among them is Bakyt Asanbek, Kolbaev’s brother, who was dismissed from the service last year.
Isabekov said a further 62 customs officials were fired for their purported links with Raimbek Matraimov, a former senior employee of the Customs Service believed to have worked in tandem with Kolbaev.
Matraimov was extradited from Azerbaijan and jailed last year on charges related to money-laundering and corruption.
With these bold moves, Kyrgyzstan’s authorities can now justifiably claim to have asserted government control in places where it hadn’t existed for a very long time.
But although businesses have been relieved of pressure from the underworld, the threat of shakedowns from the state appears to be growing.
The latest in a lengthening line of victims in this regard is the family of the late Chynybay Tursunbekov, a magnate and former parliamentary speaker who died during the coronavirus pandemic.
In his absence, Tursunbekov’s business empire has come under a multipronged assault and two of the late politician’s daughters were detained over charges of illegal privatization, some of which happened more than 15 years ago.
Both daughters are now under house arrest after one, Aidai Tursunbekova, spent more than a week in jail last month. The assets under investigation include a flour mill, a bank, a resort on Lake Issyk Kul, and land where a vodka distillery was built.
In comments to the press after news of Tursunbekova’s incarceration broke, Tashiev denied reports that there had been an offer from his side to settle the matter for a multimillion-dollar payment.
“I’m not putting any of this into my pocket but returning it to the state,” the national security chief insisted on July 22.
“On the same 1.5 hectares of land [where the vodka distillery stood], there will be apartment buildings eligible for state mortgages. The bank will be sold and the proceeds used to build these buildings,” he pledged.
