The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry press service reports that more than 20 police officers have been punished over the brutal killing of a 20-year-old woman by a man who abducted her as part of a longstanding but illegal Kyrgyz practice known as “bride kidnapping.”
The chief of the police department of the Chuy region Sarchayev, his deputies as well as the chief of the police department of the Jailyk district Ismailov and his deputy Abykanov have been fired.
Besides, several other officers of the Jailyk police department have been dismissed. In all, twenty-three people have been punished.
All of them are charged with negligence. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against them and the district department of the National Security Committee is investigating the case.
The 19-year-old Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy was killed on May 27 at a police precinct where she and her abductor had been taken after being detained.
Officials said that Turdaaly Kyzy and her abductor had been allowed by investigators to be alone in a room together at the precinct, for unknown reasons.
The 30-year-old Mars reportedly stabbed Burulai to death and then stabbed himself. The abductor was hospitalized.
Following the killing of Turdaaly Kyzy, United Nations agencies in Kyrgyzstan urged the Kyrgyz authorities to take all appropriate measures to stop illegal practices such as bride kidnapping as well as child and forced marriage.
