LEBEDINOVKA, Kyrgyzstan -- A Kyrgyz man suspected of involvement in what investigators called the assassination of opposition politician Medet Sadyrkulov in 2009 has gone on trial in the Central Asian nation.
The Alumudun district court in the northern Chui region started the trial of 41-year-old Sanjar Saparbekov on February 7. He is charged with murder, kidnapping, the organization of a criminal group and taking part in its activities, the destruction of private property, and vandalism.
Saparbekov, a childhood friend of former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev's son, Maksim Bakiev, was arrested in November on suspicion of being involved in the killing. He did not comment during the court session.
Medet Sadyrkulov and two associates were found dead in a burned-out car near Bishkek in March 2009. The deaths were initially ruled to be the result of a traffic accident.
But the high-profile case was reopened and the deaths were reassigned as assassinations after President Bakiev fled the country in April 2010 following mass anti-government demonstrations in the capital, Bishkek.
In 2012, a Bishkek court convicted the former president and his brother, Janysh, in absentia of being involved in the killings. They were sentenced to 24 years in prison and life imprisonment, respectively.
In a separate trial held that year, five former security officers were also sentenced to prison terms for their roles in the killings.
Kurmanbek Bakiev, who served as Kyrgyzstan’s president from 2005 until 2010, has been living in Belarus since his ouster. Belarusian authorities have refused to extradite him and his relatives to Kyrgyzstan.