BISHKEK (24.kg) — The Judicial Board for Criminal Cases and Administrative Offences of the Supreme Court considered the sanction to the ex-mayor of Bishkek Kubanychbek Kulmatov. In a supervisory complaint, his lawyer, Sergei Slesarev, asked to release the defendant from custody. In his opinion, the detention and arrest of Kubanychbek Kulmatov was unfounded.

Sergei Slesarev recalled that the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek violated the principles of transparency of the law:

When considering the measure of restraint, relatives of my client, journalists and others were not allowed to enter the courtroom. The Bishkek City Court upheld the decision of the first instance. I ask the Supreme Court to recognize the decision of the district and city courts illegal.

The prosecutor objected and asked to leave the decision of the two previous instances in force.

The Supreme Court upheld the prosecution. Kubanychbek Kulmatov will remain in custody until the end of the investigation.

On June 5, the ex-mayor was arrested and placed in the pre-trial detention centre of the State Committee for National Security, on corruption charges. According to the investigation, in 2014, he, being the mayor of Bishkek, illegally used $2 mln grant provided by TBEA in the framework of modernization of the Bishkek HPP for the construction of two schools. Kubanychbek Kulmatov allegedly redirected funds from the government to the Bishkek City Administration under the pretext of building a school in Kalys-Ordo residential area. On June 14, another criminal case was initiated against the former mayor under the articles Counterfeiting, manufacture, sale or use of forged documents, state awards, stamps, seals, forms and Illegal crossing of the state border of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic.