Former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months by a court in the Kyrgyz capital at the conclusion of a trial that has been ongoing since 2022. The case is rooted in the dramatic events at Koi-Tash in August 2019, but was combined with other pending cases – related to corruption in the purchase of Koi-Tash, corruption surrounding the modernization of the Bishkek Thermal Power plant, and illegal enrichment.
Atambayev holds the notable position of being the only Kyrgyz president to have served a full term and then stepped down from power.
When Atambayev finished his presidency in 2017, it was clear he hoped to remain plugged in via his protege, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, who won election that year. But a rift soon opened between the two, coinciding with the January 2018 breakdown of Bishkek’s most important power plant.
By 2019, the gloves were off – Atambayev’s planned power transition had failed and the Jeenbekov administration was hounding its predecessor. In July 2019, the Kyrgzy parliament voted to strip Atambayev of his ex-presidential immunity. Soon after, Atambayev repeatedly refused to accept a subpoena from the authorities directing him to appear for interview as a witness in a criminal probe into the 2013 early release of Chechen gangster Aziz Batukayev from Kyrgyz prison. Ensconced at his compound in the village of Koi-Tash, as I wrote at the time, “Former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev is headed toward an inevitable confrontation with the government of his successor, Sooronbay Jeenbekov.”
That confrontation came about a month later when the authorities moved to detain Atambayev. The first raid on Koi-Tash ended in disaster, with shots fired and one member of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) special forces killed. A subsequent raid ended with Atambayev’s surrender.
As 2020 began, Atambayev and his allies faced a mounting pile of criminal cases.
In the Batukayev case, Atambayev was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in June 2020. In December 2020, however, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court cancelled his conviction and ostensibly sent the case for retrial.
In between – in October 2020 – Atambeyev’s former friend-turned-foe Jeenbokov was ousted from power. Sadyr Japarov, who happened to be serving an 11.5 year prison term after an August 2017 conviction, was busted from jail and in short order appeared at the top of the Kyrgyz political scrum.
After a period of apparent dormancy, in early 2023 the Batukayev case was once again sent for a new trial by the Supreme Court and Atambayev was released from prison to seek medical treatment abroad. He flew to Spain and hasn’t returned to Kyrgyzstan since.
In April 2025, a court in Bishkek found Atambayev guilty in absentia in the Batukayev case but did not impose a sentence due to the statute of limitations expiring.
That brings us back to the Koi-Tash trial, which ended this week.
On June 3, 2025 the court sentenced a total of 14 people in relation to the case, including Atambayev; Farid Niyazov (7 years, 8 months in prison), the former head of the presidential administration; deputy chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party (SDPK) Kunduz Zholdubaeva (5 years probation), SDPK members Irina Karamushkina (7 years, 6 months) and Farhad Baabiev (5 years, 6 months); former parliamentary deputies Ravshan Jeenbekov (7 years, 8 months), Meerbek Miskembayev (7 years, 6 months in prison, released on 5 years probation), Asel Koduranova (3 years probation); former bodyguard Kanat Sagymbayev (7 years, 6 months, released on 5 years probation); and Atambayev supporters Kanat Osmonaliev (7 years, 8 months in prison, released on 5 years probation), Rysbek Karypbek uulu (7 years, 6 months in prison, released on 5 years probation), Amangeldi Kakebaev (3 years probation), Nooruz Kaparbek uulu (3 years probation), and Marat Shamenov (3 years probation)
Isabek Abdygaziev, a former deputy governor of the Naryn region, was released due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for his case.
And former Energy Minister Askarbek Shadiev was sentenced to 15 years and 6 months.
Shadiev and Atambayev were both subject to confiscation of property and ordered to pay 5.44 billion Kyrgyz soms (62.2 million). Shadiev, after his release from prison, will be prohibited from holding public office for three years.
Atambayev occupies a unique position in the pantheon of Kyrgyz presidents, as the first full-term president of independent Kyrgyzstan to complete a term and step down, but he has ultimately succumbed to the fate that most of them have met: exile.
Kyrgyzstan’s first president, Askar Akayev, has lived in Russia since his 2005 ouster. He returned to the country in 2021 for the first time to cooperate with an investigation. And as recently as last year he was seeking a wider reconciliation with Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan’s second president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has lived in Belarus since his 2010 ouster. He was convicted in absentia in 2013 for abuse of power. He, too, appears to be seeking a reconciliation with Bishkek.
In February 2023, around the time Atabayev was allowed to leave Kyrgyzstan, President Sadyr Japarov hosted an extraordinary meeting in Dubai with all five of his predecessors.
“Of course the former presidents spoke bitter words, aired grievances, and admitted their mistakes. But most importantly they were able to forgive each other. This was my goal,” Japarov said in a Facebook post at the time.
