The Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan has scheduled a hearing to consider an appeal of the lawyers of the sentenced to life in prison human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov. Lawyer Valerian Vakhitov told 24.kg news agency.
According to him, the hearing will take place on May 13. «Earlier, we sent a request to return Askarov’s case to the first instance court due to newly discovered circumstances. Azimzhan Askarov does not agree with the decision of the Chui Regional Court, which upheld life imprisonment. The court did not comply with the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee. It means that the government violated agreements on a number of international treaties,» Valerian Vakhitov said.
All courts have suspended their work for duration of the state of emergency in Kyrgyzstan.
On December 2, 2019, the Supreme Court decriminalized a number of counts and commuted the punishment of the human rights defender under certain articles. However, the main article of the charge «Complicity in Murder» of the Criminal Code, under which Azimzhan Askarov received the life sentence, remained.
Azimzhan Askarov is accused of inciting ethnic hatred and murder of a policeman during the June events in the south of the republic in 2010.
