From the Daily Telegraph (UK):
Kyrgyzstan president arrests niece’s fiancé after ‘ostentatious’ proposal
Sadyr Japarov was furious that a government helicopter was used for the elaborate event while the country was hit by deadly mudslides
By James Kilner
27 July 2024 • 4:19pm
Kyrgyzstan’s president has imprisoned his niece’s fiancé after he staged an “embarrassingly ostentatious” marriage proposal while deadly mudslides hit the south of the country.
Sadyr Japarov was furious when Aftandil Sabyrbekov, the partner of his beauty queen niece, used a government helicopter for the elaborate wedding proposal last month.
“I apologise to the people for my niece,” the leader of the former Soviet Central Asian state said in media interviews. “She also listens to people’s opinions. I believe that she will draw the right conclusions from this.”
When Mr Sabyrbekov failed to issue his own public apology, Mr Japarov lost patience and ordered his arrest a fortnight later on drug-related charges.
Mr Japarov also briefed the media that Mr Sabyrbekov did not love his niece and had only proposed to her because he wanted to build political patronage “to protect himself and to hide his illegal activities”.
People convicted of drug-related crimes in Kyrgyzstan usually spend years in prison.
Mr Japarov has made a show of admonishing politicians for wasting money since he seized power in a coup nearly four years ago.
The engagement video that sparked Mr Japrov’s fury showed the young couple dressed in white flying to a mountainside location on one of only three Kyrgyz Emergencies Ministry helicopters that they had rented for £1,500 per hour.
After hopping out of the helicopter, they strolled down a wooden walkway hand-in-hand and kissed next to a giant white heart as friends clapped and cheered as fireworks exploded in the background.
The video went viral in Kyrgyzstan and infuriated Mr Japarov, who has made a show of admonishing politicians for wasting money since he seized power in a coup nearly four years ago.
His 23-year-old niece, Lazzat Nurgozhoeva, who was Miss Kyrgyzstan 2020, has deleted the video from her Instagram channel but analysts said that Mr Japarov needed to be seen to impose discipline, just as his role model Vladimir Putin had done in December when he punished Russian TV personalities and presenters for their decadent “nearly naked” Christmas party.
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