Belokon Holdings: Judgment of Kyrgyzstan’s court not to be recognized in Latvia

The company Belokon Holdings, founded by Valery Belokon, commented on the judgment of the court of Kyrgyzstan against the Latvian citizen. Blackpool Gazette reports.

As it is noted, «a confidential court hearing was called in his absence on May 12. Belokon, the former shareholder of Manas Bank, was convicted along with fellow Latvian citizens and former executives Jevgenijs Verbickis, Anita Lase and Yuri Kachnov. They were sentenced to serve 20 years «custodial service».

Belokon Holdings said it does not possess any official information about the sentences and doesn’t recognize the judgments. They allege that prior notice was not given to their lawyers and as such, the sentences won’t be enforced.

«Kyrgyzstan crucially violated the fundamental principles of criminal law. The judgment therefore will not be recognized and will not be enforced in the Republic of Latvia, the European Union and other civilized countries," a spokesperson for Belokon Holdings told.

As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia has previously stated, «(.) we must express our concern about the gross violations of the Kyrgyz Republic's criminal procedural norms by certain members of the country’s law enforcement agencies in this case. In this connection, the Republic of Latvia will reserve its right to undertake an adequate response."

«We firmly believe that the court made its judgment in revenge for the unfavourable international arbitration award that Kyrgyzstan received and whereby the Kyrgyz Government was ordered to pay Latvian citizen Valeri Belokon US $16.5 million as compensation," Belokon Holdings stated.

In 2010, after the overthrow of the Kyrgyzstan government, the new political regime expropriated the previously Belokon owned Manas Bank.