Lukashenko Confirms Bakiyev Will Not Be Extradited

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says former Kyrgyz leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the country after the 2010 revolution, will not be extradited, Orda.kz reports, citing BelTA.

Speaking to reporters in Bishkek on November 27, Lukashenko claimed Bakiyev is comfortable and will remain in Belarus permanently.

Bakiyev is living well. Normally. We won’t let him go to you anymore. I told him, ‘No more trips, that’s enough! Live in Belarus.’ I sometimes visit him when he invites me. So we won’t let him go to you,
 said Lukashenko.

I think we will resolve this issue with the current leadership, he continued.

Bakiyev was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 2014 over the deadly April 2010 shootings in Bishkek.

The term was later reduced to 30 years. In 2023, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court also convicted him in absentia over corruption at the Kumtor gold mine.

Bakiyev has previously expressed willingness to return only if his convictions are overturned. His lawyer said the Supreme Court had accepted an appeal, and Bakiyev denies wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Kadyrbek Atambayev, son of another former Kyrgyz president, now faces charges of attempting to seize power. He insists the case is retaliation for his writings on corruption in the energy sector, where he named Maxim Bakiyev, Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov