The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry’s official told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service on January 26 that the former deputy chief of the Customs Service, Raimbek Matraimov, who in 2020-2021 was at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal, was added to the wanted list of the State Committee for National Security.
The ex-official is suspected of abducting and illegally incarcerating unspecified individuals. Matraimov escaped imprisonment in 2021 by paying 2 billion soms ($22.4 million) to Kyrgyzstan’s state treasury.
Matraimov’s current whereabouts are unknown.
