BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — A lawyers' rights group in Kyrgyzstan called Tuesday on the president to ensure the fairness of an ongoing trial against senior officials of the recently overthrown government, saying the legal defense teams have been subjected to threats.
A court in the Central Asian nation is hearing a case against 28 former officials, including the self-exiled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, on charges that they were complicit in ordering troops to fire on demonstrators during protests in April.
Rowdy protesters, which included relatives of the victims, gathered outside the court at the opening of the trial last week to demand retribution. Scuffles broke out between the police and demonstrators, some of whom threw bottles at lawyers and defendants as they left the courtroom.
Almost 90 people are thought to have been killed during the attempted suppression of street protests that led to the overthrow of Bakiyev’s government. The current trial only relates to 78 deaths.
The lawyers’ association — called Justice — has demanded that President Roza Otunbayeva assess the legality of the trial, which has come under international criticism.
"After the first day of the trial, every imaginable procedural rule was violated, and all with the connivance of the judge and the prosecutors," said Cholpon Dzhakupova, head of the association.
In a statement, the group also expressed dismay at the presiding judge’s reluctance to stop people in the gallery from hurling racial abuse at the lawyers, some of whom are of ethnic Russian and Jewish descent.
Dzhakupova said the constant death threats likely accounted for three defendants failing to turn up for Monday’s hearing.
Fears over public order and lawyers’ reluctance to take any further part in the trial threaten to derail the entire process.
The United States is monitoring political developments in Kyrgyzstan closely, mindful of the fate of its air transit center in the country, which is used as a stop-off point for coalition forces traveling to and from nearby Afghanistan.
Last week, the U.S. Embassy issued a statement casting doubt on the transparency of the trial.
