A courtroom hearing was held in the bedroom of the 75-year-old bedbound mother of a slain Kyrgyzstan crime lord after she was charged with laundering some of her son’s ill-gotten gains.

Mafia boss Kamchibek Kolbaev (aka Kamchybek Asanbek) was gunned down in broad daylight at a Bishkek gastropub in October last year in a security operation. Sanctioned by the US in 2011 as a major global drug trafficking suspect, he was seen as one of Central Asia’s most powerful men in the shadows.

His mother, Maya Alieva, is charged with laundering more than a dozen assets registered in her name. Prosecutors last week demanded she be handed a 10-year sentence in addition to a confiscation of property.

RFE/RL on August 6 reported how Kyrgyzstan’s national security chief, Kamchybek Tashiyev, has been explaining to the country since last year why the trial of the septuagenarian Alieva had to proceed.

“A number of cars are registered not to [Kolbaev] himself but to members of his criminal group, in his relatives’ names, in his mother's name. Why would Kolbaev's mother need five or six armoured cars?” Tashiyev reportedly asked at a press conference in November, pledging a trial "soon."

A July 22 photograph of Alieva in her bed under the watch of Judge Tilektesh Begaliev was taken by her lawyer, Baktybek Zhumashev.

Last year video footage emerged showing the current head of Kyrgyzstan’s cabinet, Akylbek Japarov, a lawmaker at the time, attending celebrations of Alieva’s birthday in 2018.