The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan announced its decision on complaint of the lawyers of the former president Almazbek Atambayev about withdrawal of his immunity.
The judicial board decided that application of the new law to the former president does not contradict the Basic Law of the Kyrgyz Republic. «This does not fall within the principle of inadmissibility of retroactive force, since the norm does not establish previously non-existent liability and its toughening,» the decision says.
The Constitutional Chamber also recognized that the ban on political activities of the ex-president also does not contradict the Constitution.
«The only thing recognized as unconstitutional is the clause that the president can annul the provided to the ex-head of state guarantees by his act,» Almazbek Atambayev’s lawyers explained.
The decision of the Constitutional Chamber is not subject to appeal.
Recall, lawyers representing Atambayev’s interests filed a statement to the Constitutional Chamber for recognizing Article 2 of the Law on Amending the Law on the Guarantees of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic dated May 15, 2019 unconstitutional and contrary to Part 5 of Article 6 of the Constitution. In particular, the Atambayev’s side considers withdrawal of his immunity unlawful, as well as giving retroactive effect to the law, since at the moment the law came into force, he resigned as the head of state and had an ex-president status.
At the beginning of the consideration of the case, the lawyers petitioned for recusal of the Chairman of the Constitutional Chamber Karybek Duisheev. In their opinion, he worked as an adviser to the brother of the current head of state Asylbek Jeenbekov when the latter was the speaker of Parliament, and this could be an obstacle to an objective review of the case. The challenge was overruled.
In their turn, lawyers of the Parliament expressed doubt about the objectivity of the case when the Deputy Chairman of the Chamber Erkinbek Mamyrov considered the case, since he had publicly criticized the amendments to the Law on Guarantees of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic before they were adopted. The judicial board, agreeing with representatives of the Parliament, suspended Erkinbek Mamyrov.
The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan stripped Almazbek Atambayev of ex-president’s status in June.
