BISHKEK -- The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office has rejected a request for a retrial of opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev, who was sentenced in 2017 to eight years in prison on corruption charges that he denies.
Tekebaev's lawyer, Taalaikul Toktakunova, told RFE/RL on June 12 that the Prosecutor-General's Office said it saw no grounds for a new trial.
Attorneys representing Tekebaev said earlier that they found discrepancies in the case materials justified a retrial.
Tekebaev and his co-defendant, former Emergency Situations Minister Duishonkul Chotonov, were convicted of bribe-taking and sentenced to eight years in prison each in August 2017.
Both denied any wrongdoing.
Tekebaev is the leader of the opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party, which said the trial was a politically motivated effort to keep him out of the Central Asian country's October 2017 presidential election.
