DUSHANBE, June 19, Asia-Plus – RIA Novosti — Turkish doctors confirmed the presence of an unidentified poison in the blood of the Kyrgyz prime minister, discovered earlier by medical specialists in Kyrgyzstan, the premier said Monday.
Prime Minister Almaz Atambayev said earlier that someone had tried to poison him in his office on May 11, and results of a medical examination in Kyrgyzstan confirmed the prime minister was suffering from some kind of toxic hepatitis after an unknown toxin had entered his system.
“Hair samples were taken and analyzed by doctors in Turkey,” Atambayev said. “They [doctors] came up with the same diagnosis as [doctors] in Kyrgyzstan.”
Atambayev also said it would take up to several months to identify the type of poison adding that he felt well after a course of treatment abroad.
“I am ready to work,” he said. “The main thing is that I have survived and hope that our politicians will stop using such methods to get even.”
Atambayev, a liberal opposition leader, was appointed the new premier in March by incumbent President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in an attempt to form a coalition government, and avoid a political crisis after opposition parties threatened to hold protests.
But members of the opposition refused to join the coalition, saying it would make little, if any, difference, and upheld their demand for early presidential elections.
Atambayev, 50, earlier said he has received several threats against his life, and media reported that he had looked ill during recent public appearances.
The premier said the threats intensified after the Kyrgyz government approved a bill to nationalize the Kristall microcrystalline silicon plant.
“I am certain it was an attempt to poison me. I had to undergo blood detoxifying procedures for two weeks,” the prime minister said earlier.
A source in the Kyrgyz National Security Committee said it had begun an investigation into the alleged poisoning and a criminal case had been launched.
