Tag Archives: law

Kyrgyzstan prosecutes ex-Osh mayor

NOV. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s prosecutor charged Melis Myrzakmatov, the once powerful mayor of Osh, for alleged corruption in a move linked to next year’s parliamentary election.

Mr Myrzakmatov, a nationalist, ruled Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city, with significant de facto autonomy from Bishkek between 2009 and 2013. He was eventually upseated by central government but last year he announced his intention to compete in parliamentary elections scheduled for autumn 2015.

The new corruption charges, so the theory goes, are designed to scupper these ambitions.

Kyrgyzstan’s General Prosecutor accused Mr Myrzakmatov of stealing $500,000 during the tender of a construction project for a bridge in Osh.

Mr Myrzakmatov has been one of the government’s most outspoken and formidable opponents. Such was his hold over Osh that he survived the political reshuffle after the country’s revolution in 2010 and ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June of the same year.

Many Uzbeks suspect Mr Myrzakmatov played a role in instigating the ethnic violence to consolidate his control over Osh.

Mr Myrzakmatov’s party, Uluttar Birimdigi, which is not in the current parliament, would have been guaranteed strong support among Kyrgyz in Osh and elsewhere in the South. This would have complicated the electoral arithmetic for other dominant parties, including President Almazbek Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.

Mr Myrzakmatov is being charged in absentia as his current whereabouts is unknown. Mr Atambayev launched a

‘war on corruption’ when he was inaugurated 2011. Most of the victims of this so-called appeared to be his political rivals.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)

Tajikistan to tighten NGO laws

NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is drafting legislation that will limit foreign funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media reported. The laws are similar to those being passed by Kyrgyzstan and those already in place in Russia. NGOs say the laws will give the government far greater control over the NGO sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Copyright law bypassed Kyrgyzstan

NOV. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Barclays Pub, Kyrgyz Fried Chicken, a Burger King with a backwards ‘N’ sourced from the Russian alphabet and many others. Copyright law often seems to have passed Kyrgyzstan by.

But the faux TGI Fridays that appeared in Bishkek earlier this year was perhaps the boldest alleged violator of property rights in over two decades of Kyrgyz independence.

After the official owners of the chain launched a formal complaint against the chain, distributed in Kyrgyz media, the restaurant has been out of reach, unavailable over the telephone, while its social media, previously actively used, has been shut down completely.

“A local company without any permission from the owner of the exclusive rights [to the franchise] copied the sign of the institution, furnishings menu and even the waiters’ uniforms,” read a statement issued to Kyrgyz outlets.

The group’s lawyers said the owners of the chain, Sentinel Capital Partners and TriArtisan Capital Partners, would prefer not to sue the owners of the Bishkek restaurant, but would seek legal action.

Few doubted that the restaurant was a fake. A critic of local eateries, Enot.kg, referred humorously to the “mysterious Bishkek brother of the American restaurant chain”, in its review of the place, noting that a real TGI Fridays branch would not offer clients the opportunity to smoke oriental-style water pipes as they ate steaks and burgers.

An inspection of the restaurant by a Conway Bulletin correspondent found the restaurant was still open and that, according to a waitress who refused to give her name had no plans to close. Asked if the restaurant was related to the US chain the waitress simply said: “It should be.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Tajik NGOs face funding problems

NOV. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Tajikistan have said a new law which means parliament has to approve all foreign funding is an attack on free speech and will force many NGOs to close, media reported. The Tajik government has said it needs the law to stop outside countries spying.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Georgia boosts pensions

NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia submitted a revised budget for 2015 that increased state expenditure, most eye-catchingly boosting pensions. The increase will mainly be funded by raising tax on alcohol and cigarettes. The coalition government has been looking for a policy to boost its supporter base.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)

Tajikistan’s amnesty encounters problems

NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least one of the thousands of inmates freed last week under a massive amnesty sanctioned by Tajikistan’s government to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the national constitution appears to have been let out too soon.

Tabur Gafurov, 31, killed his 55-year-old father during a heated argument after he returned to his family home in Sogd region, northern Tajikistan, reported Tajik outlet Asia Plus.

The incident has called into question Dushanbe’s decision to release so many prisoners at once, undermining what one regular observer of politics in the country says is an attempt by President Emomali Rakhmon to project his domestic political power.

“The amnesty is classic authoritarianism at work,” he said. “He wants the population to know that he can give freedom or take it away as he pleases,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)

Uzbek authorities sacked head of Tashkent police

NOV. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan have sacked the powerful head of the Tashkent police force, Colonel Abdumajid Mullajonov, and several of his deputies, media reported.

Over the past year intrigue has gripped Uzbekistan over the demise of the once all-power daughter of President Islam Karimov, Gulnara Karimova, and her associates. Sources in Tashkent said, though, that dismissal of Colonel Mullajonov, the son of the Central Bank chief, was not linked to politics.

Instead media said he had been sacked for corruption and bribery.

The importance of the change of leadership at the Tashkent police force is to highlight the flux that these powerful Uzbek institutions are currently going through.

Uzbek sources said Colonel Mullajonov allegedly misappropriated businesses of a sugar magnate who was a close business partner of Ms Karimova, and that he owned dozens of fuel stations in the two largest cities in Uzbekistan.

Uzbek politics, business and power are closely linked. The sacking of Colonel Mullajonov and his colleagues adds more intrigue to a fluid domestic situation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)

European court fines Georgia

OCT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – he European Court of Human Rights ordered Georgia to pay Sulkhan Molashvili, a former official in the state audit committee, $25,000 compensation for wrongly being imprisoned in 2004 for corruption. The current Georgian government has charged former ministers under ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili of abuse of power.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)

Azerbaijan’s police to use stun guns

OCT. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s government, already under fire for cracking down on human rights, will allow its police force to carry stun guns. Police will be able to use the stun guns to make arrests and in crowd control scenarios. The decision is likely to draw more criticism.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)

Azerbaijan detains talk show host

OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan sentenced Khalid Garayev, a talk show host, to 25 days in detention for alleged hooliganism, media reported. Garayev said the charges were politically motivated. EU and US media lobbyists have accused Azerbaijan of cracking down on media that the authorities dislike.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)