Kyrgyz ex-president set free

Almazbek Atambayev, who served as Kyrgyz president from 2011 to 2017 and was arrested in August 2019 (then again in October 2020), has been released from prison.

The statement came from Temirlan Sultanbekov, chairman of the Social Democrats Party (founded by Almazbek Atambayev), Caliber.Az reports.

"The verdict on Batukayev (Kyrgyz criminal authority) has been cancelled, and former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has been released. We have been bringing this day closer as we could," Mr Sultanbekov wrote on his Facebook.

He noted that the ex-president's health was "severely damaged".

In June 2019, Kyrgyzstan's Prosecutor-General's Office found signs of illegal enrichment, corruption and abuse of office in the ex-president's actions. Kyrgyz MPs voted to deprive him of the status of ex-president and immunity. On August 8, 2019, Atambayev was arrested.

After the start of mass protests in the republic on October 6, 2020, the ex-president was released from jail, but four days later he was arrested again on charges of organising riots. The politician was also accused of complicity in organising corruption in the case of the illegal release of criminal authority Aziz Batukayev from the colony.