The criminal case against former employees of Kloop media outlet — two camera operators and two accountants — has concluded in the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek. The investigation accused them of «inciting unrest.»
Judge Cholponai Umetalieva sentenced Zhoomart Duulatov and Alexander Alexandrov to five years in prison, to be served in a general-regime colony. The two accountants, who were also defendants in the case, received three years of probation.
The judge found all four guilty of inciting unrest.
The Kloop editorial team stated that the punishment relates to five videos, in which neither the camera operators nor the accountants were involved. These investigations were produced by journalist Bolot Temirov on the YouTube channel Temirov Live. Temirov previously emphasized that he had no connection with the former Kloop camera operators or accountants and that he produces all his content independently.
Experts found no direct calls for unrest in these videos.
«One gets the impression that the prosecution wanted to intimidate other journalists in Kyrgyzstan so that they would no longer associate with Temirov Live and others. I have this impression because there is not a single piece of evidence in the case proving the guilt of Duulatov or the other defendants,» one of the lawyers said during the trial.
Recall, former Kloop camera operators Alexander Alexandrov and Zhoomart Duulatov were detained at the end of May on suspicion of involvement in calls for mass unrest. The State Committee for National Security (SCNS) conducted searches in their homes and seized equipment. By court order, both were placed in pre-trial detention.
At the same time, searches were conducted in the homes of current and former journalists and other staff members of the outlet; around ten people were questioned at the state committee and then released.
Additionally, a Kloop accountant was detained on the street near a bank in the capital and taken to the SCNS. The editorial team reported that the administrative employee was detained after a search of the office where accounting documents were stored.
It was also reported earlier that the bank accounts of several Kloop employees were frozen by court order.
