The panel of judges of the Bishkek City Court made a decision in the case against akyn (poet) Askat Zhetigen. It upheld the guilty verdict.
By the verdict of the Sverdlovsky District Court of the capital, Askat Zhetigen was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison.
On March 17, the State Committee for National Security detained akyn Askat Zhetigen for criticizing the government and opened a criminal case under the article «Calls for violent seizure of power.» He was brought from Naryn to Bishkek and placed in a temporary detention facility.
On April 9, Askat Zhetigen contacted the Ombudsman and the National Center for Prevention of Torture and stated that on March 20, the day he was detained again, he was tortured. He reported that he was tortured for about an hour.
In his explanatory report, the akyn wrote that he had not been tortured, and that his health and safety were not currently in any danger. «I have no complaints about my cellmates or the staff of the State Penitentiary Service. I wrote the explanatory report in my own handwriting and correctly,» the report said.
