BISHKEK -- Security officers in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, detained Asel Otorbaeva, the director-general of the 24.kg news website, and chief editor Makhinur Niyazova on January 15 after searching the independent media outlet's offices.
Niyazova told reporters while being forced into a police car that the searches and the detentions were linked to a probe into an article about Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 24.kg's lawyer Nurbek Sadykov told RFE/RL that there was no official information about what exactly the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) is investigating.
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Leading Kyrgyz News Agency Raided, Managers Taken For Questioning
24.kg reported later that one of its editors, Anton Lymar, was also detained, adding that he, as well as Otorbaeva and Niyazova, had been taken to the UKMK for questioning.
Kyrgyzstan's civil society and free press have traditionally been the most vibrant in Central Asia. But that has changed amid a deepening government crackdown.
More than 20 people, including NGO leaders and other activists, are currently facing trial on serious charges for their opposition to a controversial border agreement between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan last year.
RFE/RL correspondents reported from the site that security officers confiscated computers, laptops, printers, and other devices from the 24.kg offices. They sealed the offices after leaving the premises.
Sydykov said the security officers did not allow him and the website's other lawyers to be inside the offices during the searches.
The UKMK said in a statement hours later that the searches and detentions were linked to a probe on "propagating a war." No details were provided.
The Brussels-based International Partnership for Human Rights called the searches at 24.kg and the detention of its staff members a "worrying development."
Founded in 2006, 24.kg is one of the country's first online newspapers.
In September 2023, the 24.kg website was blocked in Russia over four of its reports about the war in Ukraine published in October 2022.
The reports were about Russian strikes targeting Ukrainian towns and cities, casualties among Ukrainian civilians, European sanctions imposed on Russia over its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, and the mobilization of Russians to the armed forces announced in September 2022.