Some Kyrgyz parliamentarians involved in MegaCom scandal trying to politicize situation - State National Security Committee
BISHKEK. Nov 19 (Interfax) - The Kyrgyz parliamentarians, who were involved in the offshore scandal around mobile operator MegaCom, are trying to avoid responsibility by politicizing the issue, the republic's State National Security Committee said.
"Some individuals, including those named in the documents received from the state of Belize, have been trying to turn the course of the corruption inquiries in their favor, to which end they employed mass media capabilities, trying to shift the issue from legal to political territory," a spokesperson for the State National Security Committee told Interfax on Saturday.
"They are deliberately ignoring the very essence of the received documents: to identify the individuals who may have had obligations to Maxim Bakiyev [ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev's son] as a potentially probable partner in the offshore company, Southfield Management, registered in Belize," the statement said.
A final answer as to whether some high-ranking officials were involved in manifestations of corruption with regard to MegaCom in 2010-2013 will be received after an inter-agency working group completes the inquiry, the spokesperson said.
On November 16 Kyrgyz Prosecutor General Indira Joldubayeva who, along with National Security Committee chairman Abdil Segizbayev, was invited to the parliament to hear information on deputies' involvement with the offshore company, said that an inter-agency working group of security and prosecution officials had been set up to study the issue involving the names of three deputies.
Segizbayev told parliament that the Belize-registered company had three beneficiaries, who are Ata-Meken (Fatherland) Party deputies Omurbek Tekebayev, Aida Salyanova and Almambet Shykmamatov. According to a document dated April 2012, they may have profited from selling what was then a non-nationalized part of shares in MegaCom to the tune of over $50 million.
"According to the document, in the event of the sale of MegaCom shares taking place, Tekebayev was to receive 8% in the company, Salyanova and Shykmamatov were to receive 7% each," he said.
Last Monday Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, having heard information from the National Security Committee regarding the deputies' involvement with the offshore company, called for a deep inquiry into the circumstances that gave rise to such facts. He also instructed the country's prosecutor general to conduct a thorough inquiry into the data received from security agencies.
The opposition Ata-Meken party leader Tekebayev has denied any involvement with the offshore company. He dismissed all accusations and claims that the documents were falsified and politicized.
In 2011-2015, Salyanova served as Kyrgyz Prosecutor General and Shykmamatov was Justice Minister. In 2015 all three were elected to the Kyrgyz parliament as Ata-Meken candidates.
MegaCom, one of the largest mobile operators in Kyrgyzstan, was set up in 2009 by one of Maxim Bakiyev's business partners, Alexey Yeliseyev. After the 2010 revolution, 49% in the joint-stock company were nationalized. In 2014 the country's Supreme Court ordered the remaining 51% to be transferred into state ownership.