.png)
On 2 July the Pervomaisky district court in Bishkek convicted all eight defendants in the case known as the Letter of 75 of attempting the violent seizure of power. The three principal figures, former security chief Kamchybek Tashiev, former parliamentary speaker Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu and former prosecutor general Kurmankul Zulushev, each received four years and the confiscation of their property. The court then suspended the sentences in full and placed all eight on three years' probation. None will see a cell. Prosecutors had asked for nine years.
The case grew out of an open letter. On 9 February, 75 former officials and public figures called for an early presidential election in 2026 and questioned how long Japarov's term should run. The president read it as a coup. He dismissed Tashiev the next day, pushed out signatories who held office, and asked the Constitutional Court to define when an early vote is allowed.
The shape of the verdict is the message. A conviction fixes the crime in the record and closes Tashiev's career. Probation keeps him out of prison and off the martyr's pedestal, reporting to an office twice a month with no ban on moving around the country. Ownership of the word coup now sits with the court, ready to be used again.
Ownership of the word coup now sits with the court, ready to be used again.
What broke here is the tandem that has run Kyrgyzstan since 2020. Japarov and Tashiev were freed from jail by their own supporters during the protests that carried Japarov to power, and for five years they split the country between a public presidency and a security service Tashiev built across the south. That partnership is finished.
The charge itself has become a tool. Japarov's government brought a coup case against Adakhan Madumarov's Butun Kyrgyzstan in 2023 and against a group of Social Democrats in late 2025. Each one cleared a rival from the field before a vote.
The next presidential election is expected in 2027. Tashiev's lawyers will appeal, and the authorities have every reason to leave the ruling standing, since a reversal would put Japarov's strongest possible challenger back in play. Watch who inherits Tashiev's security network and his base in the south, and whether the probation tightens the moment he stirs.