The reading came in a closed room. Journalists were not admitted to hear the verdict, 24.kg reported, although the court had said the press would be let in.
What the court read out, as the lawyers relayed it: the 8 defendants convicted in July of preparing a violent seizure of power are now convicted under article 195 of the 2021 code, an offence in the chapter on civil and other human rights. The term stays at 4 years. The probation supervision that replaces prison drops from 3 years to 2.
The confiscation of property the district court ordered in July is not provided for under the new article, 24.kg and Kloop reported. Economist.kg says otherwise. The desk could not read the ruling, which has not been published.
Journalists were not admitted to hear the verdict, 24.kg reported, although the court had said the press would be let in.
The 8 are Kamchybek Tashiev, who ran the State Committee for National Security until he resigned on 10 February, the day after the letter appeared; Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu, a former speaker of parliament; Kurmankul Zulushev, a former prosecutor general; Kursan Asanov, a former deputy interior minister; Aaly Karashev, a former vice-premier; Kurmanbek Dyikanbaev, a former deputy; Emilbek Uzakbaev, a former ambassador to Uzbekistan; and Bekbolot Talgarbekov, whom 24.kg describes as the letter's initiator.
The letter of 9 February, signed by 75 public figures, demanded an early presidential election and the early end of the head of state's powers. Detentions began on 11 February. On 2 July judge Aziret Mederov of Bishkek's Pervomaisky district court convicted all 8 under the seizure-of-power article, acquitted them of abuse of office and converted 4 years in prison into 3 years of supervision with confiscation. The prosecution had asked for 9 years then too, and both sides appealed.
Tashiev's lawyer Ikramidin Aitkulov called Thursday's decision unlawful and unfounded and said the defence would appeal to the Supreme Court. “How am I, in legal terms, to explain where this article 195 came from?” he asked journalists. The defence's line is that article 195 can work only while an election is under way.
Talgarbekov spoke after the verdict. The authors of the letter had not wanted to set Sadyr Japarov and Tashiev against each other, he said, and Tashiev had not wanted to run; they could not have forced him to become president.
The code itself, in the Justice Ministry's edition of 24 July, sets the ranges. Article 326 carries 10 to 15 years in prison with confiscation. Article 195 carries public works, correctional labour or a fine in its first two parts, and in its third, for acts committed by a group, by prior conspiracy or with the use of an official position, correctional labour, a fine or up to 5 years in prison. No report says which part the court applied.
The calendar the letter was about has not moved. Parliament calls the presidential election by resolution; 24.kg reported on Thursday morning that the sitting to do so has shifted from 17 to 24 September, and that under the law the election counts as called even if no resolution passes. The date is 27 January 2027.