The previous head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for Nationwide Safety, Kamchybek Tashiev, has reportedly been charged with allegedly making an attempt to violently seize energy and abuse of workplace.
On February 10, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov dismissed Tashiev. After 5 years in energy collectively, it appeared that the eki dos – the “two pals” – had lastly fallen out.
On April 30, Tashiev’s lawyer, Ikramidin Aitkulov, informed media in Kyrgyzstan – together with Azattyk and Kaktus – that Tashiev had been charged below two articles of the nation’s prison code: Article 326 (“Violent seizure or retention of energy, in addition to an try to violently change the constitutional order”) and Article 337 (“Abuse of workplace”).
The small print got here quickly after Tashiev – through Otkurbek Rakhmanov, the director of the Area TV channel – confirmed that there was a prison case in opposition to him following weeks of hypothesis. Since Tashiev’s dismissal, his household and associates have been focused with corruption allegations and a few, together with a nephew and a brother, have been arrested.
In his April 29 assertion, Tashiev urged his supporters to stay “throughout the regulation” and expressed confidence that he shall be acquitted.
Tashiev has not but been detained, however has reportedly been instructed to not depart city.
Whereas the small print of the case haven’t been shared formally, Kyrgyz media report that the case pertains to the “attraction of 75 folks” – a public letter that circulated instantly earlier than Tashiev’s dismissal in February, which urged Kyrgyzstan’s authorities to maneuver the subsequent presidential elections into 2026, somewhat than ready for January 2027. It additionally questioned how lengthy Japarov’s time period in workplace must be, on condition that he was first elected to a six-year time period, adopted by a constitutional revision that shorted the presidential time period to 5 years – whereas permitting for 2 phrases somewhat than one.
This apparently spooked the Japarov authorities, which along with dismissing Tashiev and shaking up the safety companies, went instantly to the Constitutional Court docket to make clear the circumstances below which an early election might happen and below what model of the structure. The courtroom’s opinion decided that the parameters of the structure can’t be modified retroactively, that means that since Japarov was elected to a six-year time period, he ought to serve out a six-year time period – however that time period nonetheless counts as his first. In essence, the courtroom confirmed that the subsequent Kyrgyz presidential election ought to happen in January 2027 and that Japarov can be eligible to run for yet another time period.
This settled the early election query, but additionally places a timer on Japarov’s presidency – barring, in fact, additional constitutional tinkering.
As for Tashiev, he’s all the time publicly denied any ambitions to run for the presidency, regardless of some supporters selling the thought.
This might not be the primary time the Japarov authorities has cried “coup.” Again in 2023, the State Committee for Nationwide Safety (SCNS), led by Tashiev, went after Adakhan Madumarov’s Butun Kyrgyzstan get together, accusing it of plotting a coup. Madumarov was in the end charged and convicted of treason and fraud. Though he was launched, because of the statue of limitations associated to the costs, he misplaced his parliamentary mandate. In November 2025, weeks forward of the parliamentary election, the Japarov authorities accused a gaggle of politicians linked to the Social Democrats get together (itself derived from former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev’s get together, SDPK) of plotting a coup. As of February 2026, Kadyr Atambayev and others had been nonetheless in pretrial detention.
Kyrgyzstan has a notoriously tumultuous political historical past, that includes three revolutions in 30 years (2005, 2010 and 2020). On condition that Japarov himself got here to energy as the results of that churn, it’s maybe not shocking that his authorities jumps at each shadow of doable political mobilization.
