The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), issed an appeal in connection with the arbitrary arrest, subsequent release and ongoing judicial harassment of Aziza Abdirasulova, Dinara Oshurakhunova, Ondurush Toktonasyrov after their participation in a peaceful protest against the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine, as well as Nurbek Toktakunov, the lawyer of the three human rights defenders.
The Pervomaisky District Court of the capital banned holding of any peaceful rallies near the building of the Russian Embassy, as well as on Old Square and the central Ala-Too Square. The temporary ban was imposed on March 11 and will last until April 11.
On March 17, police detained Aziza Abdirasulova, Dinara Oshurakhunova and Ondurush Toktonasirov during a peaceful protest in front of the Russian Embassy in Bishkek and took them to the police department of Pervomaisky district.
Civil activist Ondurush Toktonasyrov and the human rights activist Dinara Oshurahunova were fined 3,000 soms for disobeying police officers.
On March 24, 2022, Nurbek Toktakunov was in turn sentenced to five days in prison by the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek for «petty hooliganism». The police accused him of allegedly insulting all judges in the country after denouncing the decision made by the court to ban rallies in front of the embassy as illegal and unconstitutional.
The Observatory strongly condemns the arbitrary arrest and judicial harassment of Aziza Abdirasulova, Dinara Oshurakhunova, Ondurush Toktonasyrov and Nurbek Toktakunov, which seems to be only aimed at silencing and punishing them for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The restriction on the right to freedom of assembly, namely the Bishkek police decision to ban civil society protests in key hotspots for assemblies in the capital from March 11 to April 11, 2022, is a vicious violation of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, specifically Article 39, which guarantees the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, as well as Kyrgyzstan’s international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The Observatory urges the Kyrgyz authorities to put an immediate end to all forms of harassment, including at the judicial level, against the four human rights defenders, and to remove restrictions on the legitimate exercise of Bishkek citizens’ rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.
The Observatory further urges the Kyrgyz authorities to repeal the law on non-governmental organizations adopted in July 2021, which undermines freedom of association in the country and is contrary to the state’s domestic and international obligations.
