JUNE 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz parliament is considering adopting a law to chemically castrate convicted paedophiles and rapists once they have left prison, media reported. A handful of countries, including Russia and some parts of Europe, already inject rapists with a chemical that reduces their testosterone levels.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
MAY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — London is the global centre of dispute resolution.
Its courts, solicitors, barristers and the law itself are respected around the world attracting businesses and individuals who need to settle commercial disputes.
Now, a study of documents over the past five years has shown that Kazakhstan-focused legal disputes generated the second highest number of cases, the London-based Independent newspaper reported. Dispute resolution in London can be used as a rough gauge of a country’s economic activity.
According to the report, only the United States has been the focus of so many litigation issues.
Of the 705 litigation cases covered since 2008 by the Commercial Court, the business dispute arm of the High Court in London, 86 related to Kazakhstan. Russia, which has had more high-profile and expensive cases, recorded 75 cases.
The biggest Kazakhstan-oriented case to pass through the British courts in the past five years was the dispute involving Mukhtar Ablyazov who was accused of defrauding BTA Bank, where he had been chairman, of billions of dollars.
Ablyazov is currently on the run, having been charged with perjury last year. Earlier this year, the High court ordered Ablyazov to re-pay $2b.
According to the Independent’s report, the BTA/Ablyazov dispute case generated 11 individual cases, employing at least 50 solicitors.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A man protesting against a proposed increase in the retirement age for women hurled two eggs at the Kazakh minister for labour, Serik Abdenov. The Kazakh government wants to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 58.
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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)
APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government announced that it had lifted a moratorium on granting more licences to subsoil developers, underscoring the sector’s importance for Kazakhstan’s future development.
Minerals and energy have been the backbone of Kazakhstan’s economic boom since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and that is not likely to change.
Global demand for metals may have dropped but lifting the ban, which was introduced in 2008 to allow a smooth introduction of new tax codes, will still spur foreign investor interest in Kazakhstan. The country simply holds too much untapped mineral wealth to be ignored.
And the Kazakh minister for new technologies and industry, Asset Issekeshev, immediately invited foreign companies to apply for licences at a tender in May.
Most of the $170b foreign investment in Kazakhstan since 1991 has been in the energy sector although senior government officials told Reuters the emphasis now would be on metals and non-hydrocarbon minerals.
To further encourage this, the government suggested that miners may be exempt from VAT.
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(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)
APRIL 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Tbilisi arrested three men for holding a radioactive isotope that could be used to make a so-called dirty bomb, media reported. Police did not give the nationalities of the men. The Georgian authorities have previously arrested people in Tbilisi for selling elements needed to make a radioactive bomb.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced Maxim Bakiyev, the son of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, to 29 years in jail in absentia for signing off millions of dollars in illegal deals. Bakiyev fled to London after a coup in Kyrgyzstan in 2010. He is currently on bail, facing a series of fraud charges in the US.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Bishkek court jailed three nationalist opposition MPs for between 12 and 18 months for calling for a revolution and trying to break into a Kyrgyz government office in October last year. The politicians — Kamchibek Tashiyev, Sadyr Zhaparov and Talant Mamytov — wanted the Kumtor gold mine to be nationalised.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament voted to cut the president’s authority, the latest move in the power struggle between supporters of President Mikheil Saakashvili and PM Bidzina Ivanishvili. The amendment scraps the president’s right to sack a cabinet. The pro-Western Mr Saakashvili finishes his second term and final term as president in October.
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(News report from Issue No. 128, published on March 22 2013)
MARCH 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Baku court jailed the editor of an independent newspaper for nine years for extortion. Police arrested Avaz Zeynally, editor of the Khural daily, in October 2011 after a parliamentarian from the ruling party alleged that he had asked for a bribe. Mr Zeynally’s supporters say the charges have been made up.
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(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)
FEB. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Britain’s Supreme Court threw out a final appeal by Kazakh fugitive billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov against a 22-month prison sentence for lying in court about his assets. Ablyazov is facing charges that he embezzled $6b from Kazakhstan-based BTA Bank where he had once been chairman.
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(News report from Issue No. 126, published on March 8 2013)
