The Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan will today, March 9, hear an appeal filed by the editorial team of Kloop media outlet against a decision by the Oktyabrsky District Court of Bishkek that declared materials published on its website extremist.
Earlier, the district prosecutor’s office asked the court to recognize materials published by Kloop, Temirov Live and Ait Ait Dese, as well as the activities of their leaders Rinat Tukhvatshin and Bolot Temirov, as extremist. The request was based on materials submitted by the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan, and the court granted the motion.
However, it remains unclear which specific publications were deemed extremist, as neither the court ruling nor the expert examinations include a concrete list of the materials.
Earlier, judge Cholponai Umetalieva sentenced cameramen Zhoomart Duulatov and Alexander Alexandrov to five years in a general-regime colony. Two accountants who were also defendants in the case were sentenced to three years of probation.
The court found all of them guilty of inciting unrest.
The editorial team stated that the punishment was linked to five videos with which the cameramen and accountants had no connection. The investigations were published by journalist Bolot Temirov on the Temirov Live YouTube channel. Temirov has previously said he was not acquainted with and had no ties to the former Kloop cameramen or the accountants, adding that he produces all of his content independently.
Experts reportedly found no direct calls for unrest in the videos.
The guilty verdict drew criticism from international human rights organizations.
On November 25, 2025, the sentence for the former Kloop employees was reduced from five years in prison to three years of probation, and they were released in the courtroom.
Kloop Media is an online media outlet in Kyrgyzstan founded in 2007 by Rinat Tukhvatshin and Bektur Iskender. In 2023, prosecutors filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve Kloop Media Public Foundation, accusing the organization of activities inconsistent with its statutory goals. The editorial team called the lawsuit politically motivated. In February 2024, the court granted the claim, and the organization was liquidated as a legal entity in Kyrgyzstan.
