Over the past year, evidence suggesting that Kyrgyzstan’s border officials helped run a smuggling scheme worth more than $700 million has brought people out onto the streets in the country. Trust in politicians, already low, has fallen yet again.
Shortly before the second part of the investigation into the scam was released in November 2019, Aierken Saimaiti, the money launderer-turned-whistleblower behind the investigation, was murdered in Istanbul – a shocking reminder of the stakes for people who come forward to expose alleged wrongdoing.
Saimaiti had shared documents that supported a joint investigation by Radio Azattyk – the Kyrgyz service of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Kyrgyz media outlet Kloop. The main journalist behind the investigation, Ali Toktakunov, has received threats to his life.
