The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch calls on the authorities of Kyrgyzstan to immediately drop criminal charges against a blogger Aftandil Zhorobekov and lift his house arrest. The organization says in a statement.
The blogger Aftandil Zhorobekov was detained on November 24, 2019 by the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) and held in pretrial detention until being placed under house arrest on December 5, with the charges against him still standing.
The national security agency said that Zhorobekov, the 34-year-old administrator of a Facebook page called BespredelKG, had posted «knowingly false and provocative information meant to discredit the current authorities,» which «resulted in the agitation of hateful feelings» among visitors to the page.
Incitement carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
«The authorities in Kyrgyzstan are using bogus incitement charges as a pretext to punish Zhorobekov for his controversial posts about government figures,» said Laura Mills, a Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. «His arrest sets a dangerous precedent that anyone could be held criminally liable for criticizing public figures, or for the offending speech of others.»
As the organization stresses, politicians in Kyrgyzstan regularly target critical journalists or media outlets with damaging lawsuits, but defamation appropriately carries no criminal punishment. In this case, the authorities are holding Zhorobekov criminally liable for the actions of others — those who posted offensive comments on his Facebook page.
The charges against Zhorobekov violate Kyrgyzstan’s human rights obligations, including as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protects freedom of expression. The ICCPR allows for certain restrictions on expression, including in response to «incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.» But any laws restricting freedom of expression must comply with the principle of legal certainty, in that they are sufficiently clear and precise to ensure people are able to reasonably foresee the consequences of their actions and regulate their conduct in relation to the law.
The misuse of incitement charges against Zhorobekov to achieve an ulterior, impermissible motive — that of silencing a critic — fails to meet these criteria.
«The ability to express critical opinions is fundamental to freedom of expression,» Laura Mills said. «The authorities in Kyrgyzstan should immediately drop the criminal charges against Zhorobekov, lift his house arrest, and ensure the statute on incitement isn’t used abusively again in the future.»
