The Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan held a hearing where an appeal of the lawyer of the sentenced to life in prison human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov, Valeryan Vakhitov, against the decision of the Chui Regional Court dated July 30 was considered yesterday.
Recall, the court denied the request of Azimzhan Askarov to review the case in connection with the humanization of criminal law. However, this time, the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic partially satisfied the complaint of the lawyer and decriminalization was applied on some counts. «In particular, the prison term under the Article «Mass riots» was reduced, the Article «Murder on ethnic grounds» was re-qualified to simply «Murder.» I will receive the decision only tomorrow and I will be able to answer in detail on the points. I’ll say in advance that the life sentence on the main case remains, since the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee were not taken into account,» said Valeryan Vakhitov.
In this regard, my client wants to sue the Government for failure to fulfill obligations under international ratified treaties.
Valeryan Vakhitov
Azimzhan Askarov was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is accused of inciting ethnic hatred and murder of a policeman during the June events in the south of the republic in 2010.
