BISHKEK, MAY 27, (RIA Novosti's Julia Orlova) - "Kyrgyz authorities have decided to return the former republican president Askar Akayev's personal effects, archives and books," Russian lawyer Maxim Maximovich, who heads an international defense team representing the former Kyrgyz president's interests, told RIA Novosti. In his words, Kyrgyz Prime Minister and acting republican president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, adopted this decision in line with an inquiry by Akayev's lawyers. "On May 26 I had a long conversation with Kyrgyzstan's State Secretary. We discussed contentious issues yesterday," Maximovich noted.
"I would like to note that the country's Government is voicing a more realistic and well thought position as regards the situation with the first Kyrgyz president. The State Secretary told me that the Government had nothing to do with the findings of a state commission that checks the property of president Akayev and his family. Nor does it approve such findings," Maximovich added.
He said that he talked to Akayev and his wife over the phone for several hours each day. "He (Akayev) has only one wish - to return home, to live quietly and to work on his book. He does not insist that his prerogatives as ex-president be reinstated," the lawyer said.
Askar Akayev was sacked as the country's president on March 24. His office and other premises were immediately searched. Kyrgyz authorities searched Akayev's state-residence office some time later. All of his documents, archives and diaries were confiscated.
Askar Akayev has repeatedly asked new republican leaders to return books from his personal library, including books that were presented to him by their authors, as well as medical documents, personal correspondence and diaries. But he was invariably refused.
An ad hoc commission was established in Kyrgyzstan, checking dozens of enterprises that belong to the former Kyrgyz president's family. The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's office has already opened more than one hundred criminal cases in connection with financial frauds that were uncovered by the commission.
Talking to Russian mass-media bodies, Askar Akayev, who now lives in Moscow, said that his family did not own any substantial property.
