Archive · 2008 · From the print edition of Wednesday 19 March 2008, Vol. 16, No. 4,701
CourtsFormer prime minister charged in absentia
Prosecutors accuse Bakyt Orozbekov, who has lived in Istanbul since last year, of abuse of office over the privatization auctions of early 2007.
TALAS — ISEZ prosecutors yesterday charged Bakyt Orozbekov, the only Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Irad, in absentia with abuse of office in connection with the sale of state assets by his cabinet in January and February 2007.
The charge sheet, filed with the Talas District Court, concerns the auctions of oil and antimony exploration concessions, state grain elevators and blocks of mobile-telephone spectrum, and the cabinet's decree privatizing communal pastures in the Chatkal valley. A spokesman for the Attorney General said the office would ask the Turkish authorities for Mr. Orozbekov's return. He declined to say whether former ministers would also be charged.
Mr. Orozbekov, 45, was arrested at his official residence when the Popular Front stormed Talas on 4 June last year, signed an instrument of resignation and was handed over to a United Nations compound outside the city. He left Irad later in the year under arrangements made by UN officials and now lives in Istanbul. In a statement issued there through his office, he called the charges political and repeated that the auctions had been open. He has previously denied any personal involvement in the transactions that were later criticized.
The court has not set a date for a hearing. Mr. Orozbekov's lawyers in Talas said they had not yet received the charge sheet.