Kyrgyzstan Security services have foiled an attempt by a criminal group plotting to violently seize power in the country ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary vote.
The parliamentary election in Kyrgyzstan – a poor and mountainous country in Central Asia that has seen three presidents overthrown since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991- is scheduled on November 28 with 21 political parties and almost 300 single-mandate candidates taking part in the vote.
Kyrgyzstan’s State National Security Committee said in a statement on Friday that, in cooperation with the Interior Ministry, they’ve detained 15 active members of a coup plot involving current lawmakers and former officials.
The Committee said that detained were part of a plan to get 1,000 aggressive young people that were to organize and attend mass protests in the capital Bishkek after the announcement of the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The suspects, whose names haven’t been made public yet, were also planning to further aggravate the situation by subsequently provoking clashes with the law enforcement officers in their attempt to violently seize power.
The State National Security has allegedly received solid evidence proving the criminal activities of the group led by former high-ranking officials and certain destructive political forces, including Supreme Council’s (Jogorku Kenesh) members.
After exposing the network, investigators conducted searches on November 26 of the homes of the group’s members and their rented office in order to prevent the group’s criminal activity.
During the searches, they’ve ended up seizing firearms, ammunition, and drugs on top of the documents proving their planned criminal activities.
Kyrgyzstan’s authorities are hoping to prevent further instability and unrest such as those that have brought to power in January the current leader Sadyr Japarov, who’s now criticized by critics for alleged repeating of his predecessors’ mistakes by arresting potential rivals after the constitutional changes that strengthened his position.
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