Nearly nine months after Kyrgyz authorities took 11 journalists associated with Temirov Live into custody, a court in Bishkek announced its verdict: Two of the journalists, charged with organizing or aiding in “calls for mass unrest,” were sentenced to prison terms; two others were handed probation terms, and the remaining seven were acquitted.
Prosecutors had asked for six-year sentences for all 11 defendants in a case that has drawn widespread criticism from media and human rights advocates.
“These charges are nothing more than a politically motivated attempt to suppress free speech and punish journalists for their work,” Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s acting director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement ahead of the verdict.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has advocated for dropping the charges against the journalists since their arrest in January. In a September 26 statement, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Gulnoza Said, warned, “The conviction of even a single one of the 11 Temirov Live investigative journalists on such clearly contrived and retaliatory charges would deal a further severe blow to Kyrgyzstan’s international reputation.”
The International Partnership for Human Rights said in a September 30 briefing noted, “The media climate in Kyrgyzstan, once relatively free, has deteriorated significantly due to government raids, arrests of journalists, forced media closure initiatives, and blocking of news sites.”
Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, the director of Temirov Live and the wife of its founder, the exiled Bolot Temirov – whose Kyrgyz citizenship was revoked in another controversial case that came in the wake of a long-running pressure campaign against him – was given a six-year prison term.
The judge reportedly said that Tazhibek’s son, a minor, may be placed in an orphanage if no suitable relative could be found, given that his father is outside the country. The journalists’ lawyer and Temirov, in a social media post, said that the child lives with his grandmother. A deputy from the Ombudsman’s Office, as reported by 24.kg, said, “If social services consider that the grandmother is at an age where she can provide the child with all the necessary conditions, then she will have to renew guardianship every six months. I think there will be no problems with this.”
Nevertheless, Temirov expressed concern: “They are not taking him away from his grandmother… But that does not mean there is no threat.”
Azamat Ishenbekov, an akyn with the “Ait ait dese” project, was sentenced to five years.
As Ilya Lozovsky of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) described in an article earlier this year decrying Kyrgyzstan’s new era of repression, “Ait Ait Dese features rhymed performances by traditional poets, called akyns, calling for action against social problems, inveighing against corruption, or even presenting the findings of Temirov Live’s investigations.”
In July, another akyn – Askat Zhetigen – was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of calling for the violent seizure of power.
Following the verdict, Ishenbekov said in a Telegram post, “There is no justice or honesty in this country, everything is dead.”
Two of the remaining journalists – Aktilek Kaparov and Aike Beishekeeva – were given three-year probation terms. Beishekeyeva was arrested on her 23rd birthday on January 16; she is the youngest journalist among the 11. Aktilek Kaparov had worked as an investigative joiurnalist for Factcheck.kg and Temirov Live before founding his own outlet, Alga.media.
The two were nominated by the Media Action Platform of Kyrgyzstan for their Most Resilient Journalist and Young Journalist awards in August.
Those acquitted due to a lack of evidence were: Temirov Live editorial staff Maksat Tazhibek uulu, Akyl Orozbekov, and Jumabek Turdaliev; Zoodar Buzumov, a journalist of “Nur press” media; Saparbek Akunbekov, an employee of the “Ait Ait Dese” project; Saipidin Sultanaliev of Archa Media (formerly Next TV media), and PolitKlinika journalist Tynystan Asypbekov.