Kyrgyzstan
24.07.20
Urgent Interventions

Critical health condition of Mr. Azimjan Askarov, unjustly detained for more than a decade



Paris-Geneva, July 24 2020 – While wrongfully imprisoned human rights defender Azimjan Askarov’s health is seriously deteriorating, to the extent that he can no longer walk, the Kyrgyz authorities are denying him independent medical assistance. The Observatory (FIDH-OMCT) expresses its deepest concerns about Azimjan Askarov’s critical health condition and urges the Kyrgyz government to provide him with urgent medical help and ensure his immediate release.
On July 22, 2020, Azimjan Askarov'slawyer, Valerian Vakhitov, reported that the human rights defender's health hascritically deteriorated. When Mr. Vakhitov visited him the same day, two prisonofficials had to carry Mr. Askarov in their arms, as he was not able to walkhimself. During the visit, Mr. Askarov could barely speak and presentedCOVID-19 symptoms, including cough and dizziness. The lawyer noted that Mr.Azimjan Askarov had significantly lost weight: he had no appetite for over tendays and has been receiving glucose and vitamins injections.

On July 24, the prison authorities transferredMr. Azimjan Askarov from the prison where he is serving his sentence to medicalpenitentiary institution N. 47 for a medical check. While the Observatorywelcomes this decision, we are concerned with the fact that Mr. Askarov isdenied independent medical assistance from private services, as had beenrequested earlier by FIDH member organisation Bir-Duino-Kyrgyzstan.

"Askarov's sentence is politically motivated, andthe human rights defender should not had been sentenced in the first place. Nowthat his health has critically deteriorated, it is vital to release him andprovide him with urgent medical care. Every day that Askarov spends in prisonis a further breach ofthe right to life and human dignity by Kyrgyzstan",said Tolekan Ismailova, the FIDHVice-President, Chair of the Bir-Duino-Kyrgyzstan.

“In light of the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Kyrgyzstan and theinaction of the Kyrgyz authorities in the face of the high risk of thecoronavirus spread in prisons, with several cases of death reported by theBir-Duino-Kyrgyzstan, we express our utmost concern regarding the state ofhealth of Azimjan Askarov, and urge the Kyrgyz authorities to provide him withurgent medical help and to ensure his immediate release”, OMCT Secretary GeneralGerald Staberock added.

Mr. Azimjan Askarov, the Director of the humanrights organisation “Vozdukh”, is currently serving a life sentence in thepenitentiary colony N 19 in Bishkek. The Observatory recalls that Mr. Askarovwas arrested on June 15, 2010, immediately after inter-ethnic clashes betweenKyrgyz and Uzbek communities that were accompanied by police violence. The human rights defender was accused of, amongothers, participating in mass riots, inciting ethnic hatred, and complicity inthe murder of a police officer. The case was built on testimonies extracted under torture and onstatements from Kyrgyz police officers whose work and human rights violationsMr. Askarov had been documenting at the scene. As reported by the Observatoryin its 2016 report “Kyrgyzstan at a crossroads: shrink or widen the scene for human rightsdefenders”, from the very beginning of the judicial proceedings in 2010, the casewas marked as politically motivated.

The Observatory recalls that, in March 2016,the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) found that Mr. AzimjanAskarov was arbitrarily detained, held in inhumane conditions, tortured andotherwise ill-treated without redress, and was not given a fair trial and urgedKyrgyzstan to immediately release him. In an April 2016 statement, the EuropeanUnion (EU) called on Kyrgyzstan to “fully implement” the Committee’s Opinion.


The Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is toprevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDHand OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the EuropeanUnion Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civilsociety

Press contacts:

• FIDH: Ms. Eva Canan, +33 6 48 05 91 57 / Email: ecanan@fidh.org (Paris)

• OMCT: Ms. Iolanda Jaquemet, +41 79 539 41 06 / Email: ij@omct.org (Geneva)