UN calls for immediate release of human rights defender Azimjan Askarov

JOINT PRESSRELEASE

Paris-Geneva-Bishkek, April 25,2016 - Ina decision made public on April 21, the UnitedNations (UN) Human Rights Committee (CCPR) confirmed that Azimjan Askarov wastortured, subject to inhuman conditions while in pre-trial detention and thathis trial did not respect minimum international fair trial standards. The CCPRurged Kyrgyzstan to immediately release Azimjan Askarov, sentenced to lifeimprisonment in 2010 after mass disturbances in southern Kyrgyzstan.

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Arrested on June 15, 2010, Azimjan Askarov wascharged with participating in mass unrest, inciting racial strife, illegalweapons trafficking, and being an accessory to the murder of a police officer.Azimjan Askarov and his lawyers have repeatedly claimed the innocence of thedefendant, providing proof that he was not even present at the crime scene. Inits decision, the UN CCPR ordered the quashing of A. Askarov’s conviction onthe grounds that A. Askarov’s defence was obstructed during the judicialprocess, through the prevention of the examination of witnesses on his behalf,obstacles posed on A. Askarov’s lawyer from attending the first hearing, andthe little time allocated for the preparation of his defence.

Since his arrest in June 2010, A. Askarov has claimed thathe was tortured and ill-treated during the first days of detention, when he wasalso denied access to a lawyer. His claims were never duly investigated byKyrgyzstan. On April 21, the UN CCPR also confirmed the inhuman treatment andacts of torture suffered by Azimjan Askarov, and ordered the State to providecompensation and remedy.

“For the past six years, we have beenrelentlessly denouncing the unfair trial and arbitrary detention suffered byAzimjan Askarov, and most recently raised his case during an Observatoryfact-finding mission in Kyrgyzstan. We hope that this landmark UN decision willmake Kyrgyzstan stand up to its international commitments, and lead to therelease of A. Askarov”, said FIDH President Karim Lahidji.

Prior to his detention in June 2010, A. Askarov, an ethnicUzbek, was investigating police brutality as well as detention conditions inKyrgyz prisons. During the ethnic clashes of June 2010 in southern Kyrgyzstanthat resulted in the death of nearly 500 Uzbeks and the displacement ofhundreds of thousands, A. Askarov notably documented violence in Bazar Kurgan.

“The continuous harassment ofAzimjan Askarovwhile in detention is not only unacceptable. It is a clear violation ofprisoners’ rights. To any objective observer it also underscores the politicalnature of the case in the first place. There is really no justificationwhatsoever to restrict his rights to receive parcels and to receive visits,including family members and his lawyer”, said OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock.

Since the award of the Human Rights Defenders Prize by theUnited States State Department in July 2015, the Kyrgyz Government has beendeclining all visit requests from Western diplomats, human rights defenders andNGOs, including one from the Observatory in September 2015.

The Observatory urges the international community to callupon the Kyrgyz authorities to immediately release Azimjan Askarov inconformity with the CCPR decision, and to refrain from further harassmentagainst the latter whose health keeps deteriorating. A. Askarov has beendiagnosed with severe heart diseases, and his vision and hearing havedeteriorated significantly during the last months. It is likely that thesesymptoms are at least partially connected to the injuries he sustained in 2010while in the hands of the police.

Last week, the Director of the Office for Democratic Institutionsand Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation inEurope (OSCE) andthe European Union External ActionService (EEAS) called on the Kyrgyz authorities to implement the CCPR decision. The OSCE/ODIHR Director specifically urged the authorities to release A. Askarov.

The UN CCPR is the body of independentexperts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights by its State parties. The case of A. Askarov was considered under theFirst Optional Protocol to the Covenant, which gives the CCPR competence toexamine individual complaints.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (theObservatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World OrganisationAgainst Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to intervene toprevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders.

For more information, please contact:
• FIDH: Audrey Couprie: + 33143552518
• OMCT: Delphine Reculeau: +41228094939
• Bir Duino: Tolekan Ismailova:+996 555 747 452

• Kylym Shamy:Aziza Abdirasulova +996312351851, +996 502 366623