Kyrgyz dissident's open sentencing leaves questions unanswered

5/08/02

Feliks Kulov, who leads the Kyrgyz opposition, received a ten-year prison sentence for embezzlement on May 8 in a case that has rallied opponents of President Askar Akayev. After a judge sentenced Kulov, protestors outside the court tried to block roads to keep him from detention. By keeping the sentencing open to the media, the government may have intended to refute claims that Kulov faced charges and trial only because he poses a political threat to Akayev. Such claims, though, became more dramatic after the sentencing.

"The court hearing was biased," said Ramazan Dyryldaev, the exiled chairman of the Kyrgyz Committee on Human Rights, in an email shortly after the sentencing. "Motions, arguments of the defenders or the accused were ignored." Dyryldaev claims that the judge invited reporters and "high-ranking staffers of the President's administration were calling offices of mass media, pressing reporters to go to the court" to see the sentencing.

Despite the open meeting, lines between Akayev and Kulov's supporters remain closed. "This case has an obvious political character ordered from above with the aim of removing me from the political arena," the Associated Press quoted Kulov as saying. His lawyer promised to appeal the case – which will put Kulov and the opposition's grievances back in the spotlight.

That Kulov got a semblance of an open trial shows that Akayev's administration has shifted tactics; that the sentencing prompted rage and cynicism shows that the shift failed to bring about a breakthrough. Kulov served as mayor of Bishkek, the capital, before breaking with Akayev in the fall of 2000. He is already serving a seven-year sentence, which a closed tribunal imposed in 2001.

Since that trial, Akayev has faced mounting criticism. The detention of Azimbek Beknazarov, a reformist member of Parliament, led to widespread protests. On March 27, Beknazarov supporters in the southern Ak-Sui district clashed with police, leaving five people dead and more than 60 injured. Videotapes of the event reportedly showed that police had shot civilians in the back as they fled. [For more information see the EurasiaNet Culture archive]. By opening Kulov's trial, Dyryldaev said, the government seemed interested in "trying to use the mass media to show that the sentence was fair." He claimed, though, that the judge refused questions from defense lawyers.

"Nobody believes in a fair sentence," Dyryldaev wrote.

Akayev may have reason to fear that such sentiment has spread. An international rights expert says that pressure has mounted from local and international sources since Kulov's 2001 sentencing for some sort of redress. Since the March 27 riots, Akayev has seemed aware that his credentials as a reformist were fraying.

He has consistently blamed the opposition for inciting violence, but his rhetoric softened somewhat in a state of the nation address to Parliament on May 7. While continuing to blame "irresponsible political intriguers" for needlessly inflaming citizens, Akayev acknowledged that the world was watching. "Recent events have given rise to negative comment abroad as well [as at home]," he said. "This has been a serious test for our democracy, in which years of effort by our people have been invested. Unfortunately, not everyone passed the test of democratic maturity."

Kulov's jail term also constitutes a test of Akayev's commitment to democracy. As former head of the country's secret service, say observers, Kulov may know more about Kyrgyz affairs than the president would like to make public. Unlike Turkmenistan's totalitarian leader Saparmyrat Niyazov, Akayev has never faced accusations of drug smuggling; unlike Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, he has never withstood attempts on his life. But by opening the court to re-sentence his rival, Akayev has done little to refute claims that he is undermining his own democracy. When Kulov's lawyer appeals his sentence, as she promised she would, that democracy will face a fresh test.

Posted May 8, 2002 © Eurasianet