"We felt violations ourselves," candidate for Constitutional Chamber judge says about judge selection process in 2015

AKIPRESS.COM - The Constitutional Legislation, Government Form, Court and Law Committee of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan today approved President's nominee for Constitutional Chamber judge Jamil Sharshenaliev.
In his speech Jamil Sharshenaliev said that he participated in the competition announced for vacant judge positions in 2015 and was on the 2nd place in the competition, but was not appointed anyway.
MP Ainuru Altybaeva (SDPK) asked about the selection of judges in that competition and asked if former Chief of Court Reform and Rule of Law Department of the President's Administration Manas Arabayev might be involved into selection process.
"Manas Arabayev headed the department then and he considered the candidates for Supreme Court, Constitutional Chamber judges. Did you feel subjective biased selection? Many violations were disclosed then, when he interfered into the selection of judges and barred some candidates," MP Altybayeva said.
"When the competition started in 2015, a part of contestants from Alamedin district court recalled their bids before start of the 2nd or 3rd rounds. I heard from them about those violations and for this reason they said they decided to skip competition. Several people and myself reached the final of the competition and believed it will be unbiased. But then we regretted a lot. When we tried to meet with Arabayev, he refused to meet with us. We felt the violations were made and saw that when the results were announced," Sharshenaliev said.
Former Chief of Court Reform and Rule of Law Department of the President's Administration Manas Arabayev was detained on 2 June 2019 as part of the probe by the Anti-Corruption Service of the State National Security Committee into corruption and power abuse for takeover of businesses of foreign investors.