Lawyer of the sentenced to life in prison human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov, Valerian Vakhitov, counts on relaxation of the detention regime for his client. He told 24.kg news agency.
The lawyer noted that he was preparing an appeal to the State Penitentiary Service. «Azimzhan Askarov, after being transferred from the Bishkek pretrial detention center 1, was placed in the so-called strict regime, which envisages only three short-term visits and one long-term visit during a year, three short-term phone calls and an hour and a half walk in the fresh air daily. Usually, concessions are applied to life sentenced five years after they have been sent to the penal colony. Azimzhan Askarov has been imprisoned since 2010, and we have never asked any relief in the regime for him. He doesn’t complain about anything, but we must remember that Askarov is an elderly person and the restrictions does not improve his health,» Valerian Vakhitov noted.
He also added that he appealed to the Bishkek City Court on Askarov’s lawsuit against the government for failing to comply with the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee. On June 12, the Administrative Court of the capital dismissed the claim of the human rights activist against the Cabinet.
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 May 13.
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.
