The same day the interim government charged former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev with mass murder, a Bishkek-based NGO says he should be charged with polygamy to set an example for others, AKIpress reports.
Kalicha Umuralieva, director of the NGO Our Right, has requested that the Bishkek police initiate a criminal investigation against the ousted president.
According to [Umuralieva], the ex-president violated Article 153 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, because he is married to several women at the same time. As she stated during the press conference, the NGO intends to make a precedent and call for responsibility by filing a case for violation of article 153. Answering the question whether she has facts about K. Bakiyev’s polygamy, K. Umuralieva stated that the facts are known to all and the investigation will have to find out the number of wives of the former president.
Bakiyev is widely rumored to have two or three wives: Tatyana Bakiyeva, an ethnic Russian, the mother of Maxim and Marat; and one or two younger ethnic Kyrgyz wives. Bakiyev fled from his Jalalabad stronghold on April 15 to the southern Kazakh city of Taraz, reportedly with a younger Kyrgyz wife and two young children.
David Trilling is Eurasianet’s managing editor.
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