BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan's authorities will repossess dozens of firms illegally acquired by ousted president Askar Akayev's circle and may then re-privatise them, the country's top prosecutor said on Thursday.
"Property illegally privatised by Akayev's family and circle will be returned to the people... we will arrange things so that these properties bring money to the state budget," Prosecutor General Azimbek Beknazarov said.
"After the court proceedings it is not excluded that these enterprises will be re-privatised," Beknazarov told journalists.
Corruption by Akayev's circle was a key grievance of the protest movement that swept this former Soviet republic this spring, culminating in the storming of Akayev's office and his flight to Russia on March 24.
Investigators are examining 114 firms owned by relatives and friends of Akayev, Deputy Prime Minister Daniar Usenov, said on Thursday.
The firms include Aalam Service, a supplier of fuel to a US airbase used for operations in Afghanistan, the Bitel mobile phone provider and a cement and slate factory said by officials to have funnelled cash to offshore accounts.
Also under investigation are the Meerim (Tenderness) International Charitable Fund of Akayev's wife Mairam and the Canadian-owned Kumtor gold mine -- responsible for up to 10 percent of gross domestic product in recent years.
Akayev has immunity from prosecution, but parliament has stripped his relatives of immunity.
A daughter, Bermet, recently returned to Kyrgyzstan to claim a parliamentary seat she says she won in a disputed poll.
The new government of interim President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has promised fair presidential polls on July 10.
05/12/2005 13:40 GMT