According to local media, he was boiled alive.
The family was informed about Marat Zaripov’s death on March 28, his relative Angelika (name changed at her request) told ASTRA. According to her, they were informed that he died of cirrhosis of the liver. However, telegram channels linked to the security forces claim that Zaripov has been tortured for the past two weeks, and on the night of his death, he was boiled to the waist, demanding a confession.
Zaripov’s relative did not confirm this information, because the body was not returned to the family even after ten days.
At the end of February, unknowns hacked the Four Dragons cryptocurrency exchange from Kyrgyzstan, stealing a large amount of money. The damage, according to preliminary data, ranges from 10 million to 2.7 billion dollars. Russian citizens Marat Zaripov, a former employee of the trading platform, and his friend Violeta Dmitrieva, 19, were detained on suspicion. They allegedly had access to crypto wallets and transferred money from there to other accounts. The investigation uses as evidence the history of Google translator, whose help the accused allegedly needed.
Angelica told ASTRA that they both underwent polygraphs, voluntarily agreeing to do so, but the study showed that they were telling the truth while claiming their innocence.
On March 25, Zaripov was taken to a court hearing beaten, local media reported. He had bruises on his face and head, he could hardly move, but a medical examination was not scheduled.
“The first version is that they tried to kill Zaripov or at least “knock out” certain “secrets” from him related to the huge volume of “dirty” cash flows. Another version: a “domestic” conflict with unidentified persons, but none of the official representatives of the pre-trial detention center gives any comment, and Zaripov himself is afraid to tell the truth and will probably say that he “fell off the bunk 10 times in a row.” However, such “explanations” look absurd and humiliating to any sane person,” reported Zaripov’s lawyers.
According to Angelica, Zaripov worked at Four Dragons since 2022. She said that he was invited to work there, promising a very good salary for Kyrgyzstan, despite the fact that in fact he was only a cash collector.
“I’m sure he was framed,— Angelica says. — In my opinion, the people who worked at the company and had access to the hot wallets stole the money themselves, they have no evidence against Marat and Violetta. They wanted the fact that something like this had happened before to come out of the past. But Marat didn’t do anything like that. I know that not a single person who really had access to wallets has been in Kyrgyzstan for a long time.”
