Kyrgyz MP escapes arrest by jumping out of parliament window

A Kyrgyz MP has escaped arrest by jumping out of a parliament building window, reports said on Wednesday.

Emil Jamgyrchiev faces charges of illegal border crossing, namely a reported secret visit to Uzbekistan in 2022 for a meeting with a known Uzbek criminal boss, Salim Abduvaliev, who is currently under investigation by Uzbek authorities.

Jamgyrchiev jumped out of a first-floor window on Tuesday after a parliamentary commission decided to strip him of immunity from legal prosecution, and investigators from the General Prosecutor’s Office attempted to hand him an arrest warrant, reports say. 

At the commission’s meeting, Jamgyrchiev dismissed the charges against him as politically motivated.

The Kyrgyz security service said in December it was investigating Jamgyrchiev’s suspected illegal trip to Uzbekistan. This was followed by the General Prosecutor’s Office request to parliament to allow a criminal case to be opened against the MP.

Kyrgyz security chief Kamchybek Tashiyev told parliament on Wednesday that the Uzbek criminal authority Abduvaliev had been questioned jointly by Uzbek and Kyrgyz investigators as part of the probe against Jamgyrchiev.

Abduvaliev is currently under arrest and being investigated on suspicion of illegal arms dealing – the move is part of the Uzbek government’s crackdown on organised crime launched at the end of last year.

Tashiyev said Abduvaliev confirmed meeting Jamgyrchiev in Tashkent in December 2022, saying the latter sought his help “with sorting things out in Kyrgyzstan”.

The Uzbek authorities are investigating Jamgyrchiev on suspicion of visiting Uzbekistan with a fake ID, Tashiyev said.

Tashiyev’s service has since October been conducting a wide-scale clampdown on organised crime. The campaign has also targeted businesspeople and politicians suspected of ties with the criminal world.

Observers say the crackdown is primarily being used by Tashiyev to boost his influence and potentially pave the way to the presidency.

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