Sources close to Kyrgyz law enforcement told RFE/RL on March 26 that Azerbaijan extradited the former deputy chief of the Kyrgyz Customs Service, Raimbek Matraimov, to Bishkek, where he is wanted for alleged abduction and the illegal incarceration of unspecified individuals.
Media reports in Kyrgyzstan said a brother of Matraimov was extradited along with him. Kyrgyz authorities have not issued a formal statement, but the State Committee for National Security (CSTO) reported that Raimbek Matraimov was in Baku.
The special service said it had sent a letter to Azerbaijan regarding Matraimov's arrest, and that the issue of his extradition to Kyrgyzstan was being discussed.
Matraimov was at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal in 2020-2021 involving the funneling of close to a billion dollars out of Kyrgyzstan.
SEE ALSO: Kyrgyzstan's Former Kingmaker Matraimov Brought Home As Enemy Of The StateA Bishkek court in February 2021 ordered pretrial custody for Matraimov in connection with the corruption charges. He received a mitigated sentence that meant no jail time and fines amounting to just a few thousand dollars.
The court justified the move by saying that Matraimov had paid back around $24 million, which had disappeared through corruption schemes he oversaw.
In November 2023, the chairman of the state security service, Kamchybek Tashiev, accused Matraimov and crime boss Krimtubol Kolbaev of "forming a mafia in Kyrgyzstan."
Matraimov left Kyrgyzstan in October after Kolbaev was killed in a special security operation in Bishkek.
The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said on January 26 that Matraimov had been added to the wanted list of the State Committee for National Security.
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Also in January, Kyrgyz authorities issued a search warrant for Matraimov and directed police officers to investigate him. He has not commented on the charges.
In 2019, an investigation by RFE/RL, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Kloop implicated Matraimov in a corruption scheme involving the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan.