Former Kyrgyz president Atambayev stripped of immunity

Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted in favor of stripping former president Almazbek Atambayev of his immunity, the parliament’s press service said.

"The necessary number of MPs voted in favor of lifting ex-president’s immunity, after adopting this decision Atambayev may be prosecuted," TASS cited a spokesman as saying.

A total of 106 out of 120 lawmakers supported the decision.

Earlier, representatives of Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies said several criminal cases had been launched against the former president, which they could not investigate due to his immunity. After Thursday’s decision, the investigators will be able to start investigating these cases and even demand restrictions on his freedom.

According to the parliament’s commission on lifting the ex-president’s immunity, five charges have been pressed against Atambayev. The former president is suspected of corruption during the reconstruction of Bishkek’s thermal power station and illegal supplies of coal for it, the unlawful allocation of land and helping release crime lord Aziz Batukayev as well as obtaining a plot of land for building a residential house.