BISHKEK: A court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced three opposition members of Parliament to up to 18 months in jail yesterday for leading a protest that, the judge said, had aimed to seize power by force in the Central Asian nation.
Prosecutors had sought jail terms of up to 10 years for nationalist MPs Kamchibek Tashiyev, Sadyr Zhaparov and Talant Mamytov, who led a crowd which tried to storm government headquarters last October.
The protestors were demanding the renationalisation of the huge Kumtor gold mine, a bone of contention in the impoverished former Soviet Union state of 5.5 million and run by Canadian firm Centerra Gold.
The clashes between police and supporters of the opposition Ata Zhurt party were the most violent in the capital Bishkek since those that deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in 2010 in the second revolt since 2005. Judge Adylbek Subankulov said the three parliamentarians were guilty of plotting to seize power by force and sentenced them to up to 18 months in a high-security prison.
“We only voiced the will of the people to return Kumtor to our nation,” Tashiyev, confident and defiant, said from a metal cage in which the three MPs were held before the sentence was pronounced. Several hundred opposition supporters faced police with truncheons outside, chanting: “Acquittal!” and “Freedom!”
“Freedom to the people’s heroes!” read one of the posters held by protesters who included many youths and women. “The revolutions on March 24 (2005) and April 7 (2010) were most directly linked to the issue of Kumtor,” Zhaparov said before the judge.
Kyrgyz leaders jailed for plotting coup
