Ensure Safety of Karakalpak Lawyer Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov in Prison

As if arbitrarily jailing the outspoken Karakalpak blogger and lawyer Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov on a 16-year prison sentence on January 31 for his alleged role in the July 2022 Karakalpakstan protests wasn’t enough for the Uzbek authorities, now they are isolating and punishing him further.

On September 19, Tazhimuratov’s lawyer Sergey Mayorov released a video statement describing his client’s prison conditions after meeting with him the day before.

In the video, Mayorov noted how prison officials have been failing to provide Tazhimuratov adequate health care or food and are limiting his right to receive information from the outside world. Tazhimuratov doesn’t have access to a prison library or media, or to a television. He is kept isolated in a single cell and prison officials also apparently won’t assign Tazhimuratov to a work detail, further limiting his contact with other prisoners.

Mayorov intends to file complaints with the prosecutor, prison administration officials, and law enforcement bodies, outlining how his client’s rights “are being violated while he is serving his prison sentence.”

Mayorov separately told Human Rights Watch that Tazhimuratov had noticeably lost weight and that the conditions of his imprisonment were taking a serious toll on his client’s physical and psychological health.

Like any detainee, Tazhimuratov has a right to absolute protection against inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as his other basic rights including to adequate nutrition and health care. The United Nations Minimum Standard on the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, state that “the prison system … shall not aggravate the suffering inherent in [depriving a person of his liberty].” They also stipulate that “prison administrations and other competent authorities should offer education, vocational training and work.”

Tazhimuratov, whose “crime” was to call for a peaceful protest and speak out against proposed constitutional amendments that would have stripped Karakalpakstan of its sovereign status, should not be languishing in prison.

Until Tazhimuratov is free, Uzbek authorities have the responsibility to ensure he suffers no further harm in prison and that he is not isolated from others without just cause. Prison officials should urgently and thoroughly review the conditions in which Tazhimuratov is being held and ensure he has access to adequate health care and food, and is able to receive news and other information from the outside world.

Source: HRW News

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Stockholm, September 8, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Kyrgyzstan authorities to abandon its latest threat to suspend independent investigative outlet Kloop if it does not remove a September 1 article containing allegedly false information.

“Following their recent application to shutter the outlet and now their threat to block its website, Kyrgyz authorities’ appetite for retaliation against Kloop for its uncompromising anti-corruption reporting appears to know no bounds,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities in Kyrgyzstan must cease all efforts to silence Kloop and repeal the false information law, which has once again proven its only purpose is to shield officials from  criticism.”

On Thursday, September 7, Kloop received a letter from Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Culture, Information, Sport and Youth Policy warning that if the outlet didn’t remove a September 1 article within 48 hours its website would be blocked under the country’s false information law. The letter did not specify which information was false and followed a complaint against the outlet by the State Committee for National Security.

The article cited a jailed opposition politician’s allegations of ill-treatment—which he had posted on his personal Facebook page and was widely reported by Kyrgyz media—and included a rebuttal of the politician’s claims by the country’s penitentiary service.

Kloop does not intend to remove the report, the outlet’s co-founder Bektour Iskender told CPJ by phone, and the outlet has filed a complaint with the ministry. Iskender said Kloop has been expecting such a step from authorities and set up a mirror website in February.

On August 22, authorities applied to shutter Kloop after the outlet published an investigation alleging the involvement of relatives of Kyrgyzstan’s president and the head of the State Committee for National Security in the construction of a Barcelona soccer academy in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz authorities previously blocked Radio Azattyk, the local service of U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, for nine months from October 2022, and restored their access following the removal of a report from the outlet’s websites.

Source: CPJ News

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Adilet Ali Myktybek, known on social media as Alibek Baltabai, was sentenced to five years in prison in November on a charge of calling for social unrest via the internet, allegations he has called politically motivated.

The court ruled at the time that Myktybek would not have to serve his prison sentence immediately, but instead would be under a three-year parole-like probation period. If he served that period without any violations, the court said his five-year prison term would be canceled.

The blogger’s lawyer, Taken Moldokulov, told RFE/RL that the Bishkek City Court’s decision January 12 to send his client to a penal colony was made at the request of prosecutors who considered Myktybek’s sentence too lenient.

Moldokulov added that the court annulled the probation part of the sentence leaving the five-year prison term without changes.

“The Penitentiary Service is expected to inform us where exactly Adilet Baltabai will be serving his term,” Moldokulov said, adding that the court decision will be appealed.

Myktybek was detained in late June last year after he was questioned by Bishkek police for a third time since May about his coverage of rallies by civil rights activists.

Following his release in November, Myktybek continued his blogging activities and took part in a rally January 10 to express support for 26 jailed Kyrgyzstan politicians and activists arrested in October for protesting a border deal with Uzbekistan.

Myktybek has been known for actively covering anti-government rallies and pickets in the Central Asian nation.

He is also a freelance correspondent for the Next television channel, whose director, Taalaibek Duishembiev, was handed a suspended three-year prison sentence in September after a court found him guilty of inciting interethnic hatred by airing a controversial report related to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Source: Voice of America

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