Civil activists, bloggers, journalists, and politicians who disagreed with the government over a border issue and are currently in pretrial facilities in Kyrgyzstan should be immediately released and their due process rights upheld. The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
As the human rights defenders note, the detainees were initially placed under arrest for 48 hours on October 23, 2022, accused of fomenting «mass unrest» after disagreeing with the impending transfer of jurisdiction over an important dam, Kempir-Abad, to Uzbekistan as part of a border demarcation deal.
They have spent nearly five months behind bars in facilities unsuitable for long-term detention, even though international law provides that pretrial detention should only be used as an exception, and for as short a time as possible.
«These citizens, who were exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, should not have been placed in pretrial detention in the first place, far less still be there,» said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. «They should be released immediately, and if at the end of an effective investigation there is credible evidence that they have committed a criminal offense, guaranteed a fair trial.»
In January and February 2023, three detainees were transferred to house arrest due to their deteriorated health. On February 17, the Bishkek district court extended the pretrial detention of the remaining activists until April 20.
All of the detainees were charged with preparation and organization of mass unrest on the basis of «evidence obtained from a special investigation,» which appears to be a series of edited and excerpted wiretapped conversations between some of the detainees.
On January 18, all of their criminal cases were classified as «secret,» making independent monitoring impossible. The detainees face 5 to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
The human rights activists stress that the Kempir-Abad case is rife with procedural violations incompatible with the country’s international human rights obligations. It has also shown the authorities’ lack of humanity toward detainees who had existing health conditions or have developed them due to substandard conditions in the detention facilities.
Conditions in the pretrial detention facility are reportedly worse than in regular prisons, as the facility is not intended for long-term stay.
Several detainees’ health has sharply deteriorated during detention, including a former judge of the Constitutional Court, Klara Sooronkulova, who on February 20 was transferred to a hospital for surgery.
«Both national and international organizations have expressed concern about a lack of tangible progress in the investigation and lack of accountability for the continued procedural violations in the case. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement on October 26 reminding the Kyrgyz authorities that the Kempir-Abad case detainees should be presumed innocent and that pretrial detention should be an exception, in line with international human rights norms and standards,» HRW stressed.
The UN Human Rights Committee categorizes detention as punishment for the legitimate exercise of the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Kyrgyzstan is a party, as arbitrary and impermissible.
Kyrgyzstan’s international partners should urge the Kyrgyz authorities to release the wrongfully detained activists and guarantee fair trials.
«The Kempir-Abad case is a litmus test for the humanity and fitness of the Kyrgyz authorities to remain a respectable partner in the global community of states. They should uphold their international human rights obligations and immediately release all of those detained, ensuring effective and timely completion of investigations in each of their cases, and provide redress and compensation for those wrongfully kept in detention,» Sultanalieva said.
The Committee for protection of Kempir-Abad reservoir was created on October 22. It includes activists, politicians and MPs. On the same day, in an interview with Kabar news agency, President Sadyr Japarov said: the authorities have information who was behind the rallies and marches on Kempir-Abad issue.
Mass arrests began on October 23. Authorities placed 27 people in jail on charges of preparing for riots. Three of them are under house arrest, 24 people are in the remand center 1.
