Lawyer of the human rights defender Azimzhan Askarov, sentenced to life in prison, Valerian Vakhitov will turn to the UN Human Rights Committee. He himself told 24.kg news agency.
According to him, this is necessary in order to retain the housing of the client’s family. House of Azimzhan Askarov is arrested. But by law, the court does not have the right to impose a burden, if this is the only property. «In addition, my client has already paid 175,000 soms to the family of the deceased policeman as compensation for moral damage. We would like the committee to consider our complaint. By the decision of the Bazar-Korgon District Court of Jalal-Abad region dated September 5, 2017, the arrest from the house of Azimzhan Askarov was withdrawn on the suit of Bir Duino. But in 2019, the bailiff of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Bishkek repeatedly arrested it,» Valerian Vakhitov said.
Lawyer points to violation of the Constitution. «The decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic dated December 23, 2013 set a list of property that cannot be levied: this is a residential building in which the debtor and his family reside permanently, while it is not subject to bail. Therefore, it cannot be alienated. Askarov has no other property — this is the first. The second — the house is not mortgaged,» Valerian Vakhitov told.
The Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan did not send the case of the sentenced to life in prison Azimzhan Askarov for review due to newly discovered evidence. Thus, the appeal of Askarov’s lawyers was denied.
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.
