Accessibility links

Breaking News

Watchdog

The Qantar foundation's lawyers criticized investigations into the January violence at a gathering in Almaty on April 21.
The Qantar foundation's lawyers criticized investigations into the January violence at a gathering in Almaty on April 21.

ALMATY -- Lawyers with the newly created Qantar (January) foundation say the government’s investigation into deadly anti-government protests that shook the Central Asian nation at the start of this year is inadequate and called on Kazakh authorities to improve their techniques.

At a gathering in the oil-rich nation’s largest city, Almaty, on April 21, the foundation's lawyers said that Kazakh authorities and police intentionally slowed down investigations of deaths and torture during and after the unrest in early January that left at least 230 people dead.

"We can certainly conclude now that law enforcement and courts have reacted inadequately to the tragic January events," lawyer Daniyar Qanafin said at the gathering.

Most of the cases have not been investigated properly, he said.

“There are facts [indicting the] intentional prolongation of the cases, especially those related to gunshot wounds, which are being buried among other cases with some evidence that they are being lost,” he added.

Another lawyer, Rinat Baimolda, said that suspects have not been yet found in one of the most high-profile cases, a probe launched into the fatal shooting of a family that had nothing to do with the protests.

Qosai Makhanbaev, a man who and was shot while taking part in the rallies and later arrested and sent to jail for 37 days, where he says he was tortured, attended the gathering as well.

"They kept us lying on a concrete floor, tortured us with hunger, imposed moral and physical pressure on us, trying to make us confess to terrorism, namely the raping of nurses at hospitals and the beheading of a police officer," Makhanbaev said.

The Qantar foundation was established in recent weeks by noted Kazakh entrepreneurs to provide legal assistance to victims of the violent dispersal of the protests.

A peaceful protest in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic's western region of Manghystau over a fuel-price hike led to protests across the country and ended with deadly shootings in Almaty.

What's Behind The State Of Emergency And Protests Erupting Across Kazakhstan?
please wait

No media source currently available

0:00 0:03:18 0:00

During the protests, Kazakh authorities switched off the Internet and restricted mobile phone operations for five days.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev blamed rights activists and independent journalists for "inciting" the protests, which led to the arrest of several reporters in different towns and cities across the country.

Toqaev said in the wake of the protests that "20,000 extremists trained in foreign terrorist camps" attacked Almaty, but he did not provide any evidence to support the claim. As the unrest spread, Toqaev requested help from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Toqaev also publicly said then that he had ordered security forces “to shoot to kill without warning.”

Kazakh authorities have said that at least 230 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, were killed across the country, but human rights groups say the exact number of people killed during the unrest may be much higher.

Kyrgyz journalist Bolot Temirov (file photo)
Kyrgyz journalist Bolot Temirov (file photo)

BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's Interior Ministry has denied that politics are behind the launching of probes against noted investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, who was first accused of illegal drug possession before being charged additionally with forgery and illegally crossing the border, which he denies.

Speaking to reporters on April 21, ministry spokesman Bakyt Seitov described as "groundless" statements by Temirov and his supporters saying that the probes launched against him were fabricated and linked to his professional activities.

Temirov, who was summoned to police for questioning on April 20 and April 21, has insisted that drugs found at his home by police in January were planted in retaliation for his investigative reports about corruption among top officials of the country, including President Sadyr Japarov and the chief of the State Committee for National Security (UKMK), Kamchybek Tashiev.

Bishkek city police announced the forgery and illegal border-crossing charges this week, saying that Temirov, who was born and raised in Russia and holds a Russian passport, allegedly used forged documents to obtain a Kyrgyz passport in 2008 which he used to illegally exit and enter Kyrgyzstan in recent years.

The new charges came a day after Temirov's YouTube channel published an investigative report that questioned the activities of a company owned by Tashiev's son, Taimuras, which had won several construction tenders in the southern Jalal-Abad region in recent months.

Temirov said that the new charges were filed against him because of the report. Neither Tashiev, nor the UKMK have commented.

Interior Ministry spokesman Seitov alleged on April 21 that Temirov also illegally obtained Kyrgyz military registration papers using forged documents, which the journalist also rejected as false.

Temirov was arrested in January along with noted Kyrgyz traditional bard singer Bolot Nazarov, known for performing renditions of Temirov's investigative reports as songs.

The two were freed amid rallies demanding their release but ordered not to leave the country until a probe against them was completed.

The arrests in January came after Temirov's YouTube channel, Temirov LIVE, launched an investigative report alleging high-level corruption in Kyrgyzstan surrounding the activities of the state oil company.

Temirov was among 12 people recognized by the U.S. State Department last year as anticorruption champions.

Load more

About This Blog

"Watchdog" is a blog with a singular mission -- to monitor the latest developments concerning human rights, civil society, and press freedom. We'll pay particular attention to reports concerning countries in RFE/RL's broadcast region.

Subscribe

Latest Posts

Journalists In Trouble

RFE/RL journalists take risks, face threats, and make sacrifices every day in an effort to gather the news. Our "Journalists In Trouble" page recognizes their courage and conviction, and documents the high price that many have paid simply for doing their jobs. More

XS
SM
MD
LG