Amid the continuing violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, Maxim Bakiyev, the fugitive son of ex-Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, is said to have been arrested in England. The younger Bakiyev was reportedly detained by Border Agency officials just minutes after he landed in a private jet at a small airport near Farnborough in Hampshire on June 13. According to The Sun newspaper, he was planning to seek asylum in Britain. Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for Maxim Bakiyev, the former head of the Kyrgyz Central Agency for Development, Investment and Innovation, on May 6. In Bishkek, he is wanted on fraud charges.
Maxim Bakiyev was in Washington DC when his father’s administration collapsed amid mass protests on April 7.
Edil Baislaov, the leader of the newly formed Aikol El party and the provisional government’s former chief of staff, called on the British authorities to keep Maxim Bakiyev in custody. “It will no doubt cost the Kyrgyz tax payer millions of dollars to have him extradited, but, finally, he’s locked up,” Baisalov told EurasiaNet.org on June 14.
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