Authorities have accused the son of Kyrgyzstan’s ousted president, nicknamed “the Prince” and known for his playboy lifestyle, of being a prime instigator of ethnic violence gripping the country.
Maxim Bakiyev, 32, known for his penchant for luxury, is the son of former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was toppled in violent street protests in April and subsequently fled the country.
“The ‘wallet’ of these riots is the son of the former president, Maxim Bakiyev, who started financing the riots back in April,” first deputy president Almazbek Atambayev said at a news conference.
Atambayev said that the inter-ethnic riots — in which at least 170 people have died in five days of bloody violence — were paid for with US$10 million from Bakiyev’s pocket.
Maxim Bakiyev was arrested on Monday in Britain after being listed as wanted by Interpol, Kyrgyz officials said. He landed in Britain in a private plane in a apparent bid to apply for asylum.
The Kyrgyz authorities said they would fight for Maxim Bakiyev’s extradition. His family have denied any involvement with the latest unrest.
“We have facts and proof that he is guilty of crimes, which I hope will help us bring him to trial and we will of course ask Britain to extradite Maxim Bakiyev,” interim leader Roza Otunbayeva said at a news conference yesterday.
Maxim Bakiyev occupied top posts under his father and was nicknamed the “Prince” by opposition activists.
After studying law, he was appointed to head the Kyrgyz Central Agency for Development, Investment, and Innovations, a post that gave him control of state assets and loans.
Maxim Bakiyev “practically took into his hands the management of executive power,” Otunbayeva told the Echo of Moscow radio station in February.
Members of his entourage told the Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda that he had a taste for luxury, playing with a deck of gold playing cards and wearing expensive Swiss watches. Maxim Bakiyev was popular with women and dated a series of girls including models, before marrying the daughter of Bishkek’s former mayor, the tabloid reported in April.
He is reportedly a shareholder of Britain’s Blackpool football club — and was even photographed on the stands with the club’s president, Latvian businessman Valery Belokon.
In another sporting venture, in 2007 he was appointed head of Kyrgzystan’s wrestling federation.
As the street protests that ousted his father broke out, Maxim Bakiyev was due to be the key speaker at a conference on investing in Kyrgyzstan in Washington, organized along with the US Department of Commerce.
In April prosecutors launched criminal charges against Maxim Bakiyev, accusing him of abuse of power and embezzling state loans.
He was charged with transferring at least US$35 million of a US$300 million state loan from Russia to a number of bank accounts.
Last month, Interpol posted Maxim Bakiyev as wanted on its Web site.
Maxim Bakiyev is also being investigated by the interim Kyrgyz government for possible corrupt business practices related to fuel supply contracts he handled for a US airbase there, a key site for military operations in Afghanistan.
He and his family fled the volatile Central Asian country and he was given refuge by Belarus, but Maxim Bakiyev’s whereabouts remained unknown, although Russian newspapers reported that he was sighted in Latvia.
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