Chairman of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan Kamchybek Tashiev commented to Azattyk on dismissal of the criminal case against the ex-Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Service Raiymbek Matraimov.
«After the investigations by Azattyk and Ali Toktakunov, criticism was expressed against us that Matraimov has property abroad, but we are not considering it. We detained him so that he would not run away. We sent inquiries to the CIS, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries and asked them to help in detection of property belonging to him. Information was received from these countries that Matraimov and his family members had no property there. Only after that we dismissed the case and were forced to let him go,» Kamchybek Tashiev said.
The United States has placed three people, including former customs official of Kyrgyzstan Raiymbek Matraimov, under Magnitsky sanctions.
The former deputy head of the State Customs Service, Raiymbek Matraimov, was detained on February 18. The Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek chose a preventive measure for him in the form of detention in a remand prison of the State Committee for National Security for two months. He is charged with money laundering. The former customs officer complained about deterioration of his health in a prison cell, and he was hospitalized in the private clinic. He stayed there for over a month.
In October 2020, the national security bodies of Kyrgyzstan began pre-trial proceedings on the fact of corruption at the customs. It was found out that since the beginning of 2016 to the present the former deputy chairman of the Customs Service Raiymbek Matraimov, other officials of the state service and controlled participants of the foreign economic activity established a corruption scheme on extraction of shadow incomes during customs administration, as a result of which the state budget was damaged on an especially large scale.
