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Kyrgyzstan Minister Says Case Against Media Workers Not About Politics

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyzstan is pushing back against international criticism of a high-profile prosecution of media workers, saying the case is not politically motivated and that those facing charges of inciting mass unrest are poorly educated people masquerading as journalists. Minister of Internal Affairs, Ulan Niyazbekov, said the case against 11 former and current workers for media outlet Temirov Live stems from the publication of false information that flouts the basic rules of journalism. Free speech advocates say Kyrgyzstan is clamping down on what was once a relatively permissive environment for the media. “If they continue to write everything that comes to their mind without facts and evidence, just saying that they are journalists, then we will arrest them,” Niyazbekov said in an interview with Kabar, Kyrgyzstan’s national news agency. He said most of the people accused in the Temirov Live case are “bloggers,” not journalists. “They spread false information because they don't have education and make people panic. And there is no need to make noise about them saying that they are journalists,” he said. The minister’s comments were published on Thursday, two days after a court in Bishkek ordered the transfer of four of the journalists from prison to house arrest. Four others accused in the same case remain in pretrial detention. If convicted, they could be sent to prison for years. Temirov Live is a YouTube-based outlet that has published and broadcast reports on alleged corruption by senior officials. It was founded in 2020 by Bolot Temirov, who was expelled from Kyrgyzstan in 2022. He has said the ongoing case against his colleagues is in retaliation for Temirov Live’s investigations into alleged government misconduct. In an interview with Kabar, Niyazbekov noted that there were potential penalties in Europe and the United States for journalists who spread false or unconfirmed information. “They don't accuse someone without proof,” he said. “If someone tries to slander someone or spread false information about the activities of the authorities, they will be brought to court and pay a large compensation or be imprisoned.” The government in Kyrgyzstan tolerates criticism but its “only demand” is that critics “gather evidence or make the information very precise and then release it to the public,” Niyazbekov stated.

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Kyrgyzstan Court Moves Four Journalists from Prison to House Arrest

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Four journalists in Kyrgyzstan who were jailed in January on suspicion of inciting mass unrest have been moved to house arrest, while four others accused in the same case remain in pretrial detention. A district court in Bishkek ordered the release on Tuesday of the former employees of Temirov Live, which supporters say is being targeted by the government because of its reports – some on YouTube - on alleged corruption involving senior officials. Police concluded that Temirov Live reports “contain signs of calls for mass chaos,” according to media outlet Politklinika. The four journalists transferred from jail to house arrest are Tynystan Asypbekov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, Joodar Buzumov, and Maksat Tajibek uulu. Those still in jail are Temirov Live director Makhabat Tajibek kyzy; two other journalists with the outlet, Aike Beishekeyeva and Azamat Ishenbekov, and a former Temirov Live journalist, Aktilek Kaparov. A total of 11 former and current Temirov Live workers face charges in the case that could send them to jail for years if they are convicted. Free speech advocates say the prosecution is part of an increasingly restrictive rollback from a time when media enjoyed relative freedom in Kyrgyzstan. The conditions of the journalists still in prison came under further scrutiny this past weekend when Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, the Temirov Live director, alleged that she and other detainees not involved in her case were beaten. Authorities deny the allegation.

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In Fear of Sanctions, Kyrgyz Banks Shun Russian Cards

Kyrgyzstan's Interbank Processing Center (IPC) reports that on April 5 it will stop servicing the Russian payment system 'MIR'. The decision was made "to minimize the risk of secondary sanctions." Interbank is a Kyrgyz company that services the national payment system, called ElCard. In 2019 Interbank entered into a partnership with MIR, so that citizens of both countries could pay with their domestic bank cards while in either Russia or Kyrgyzstan. On February 23 the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is responsible for controlling foreign assets that involve U.S. dollars and/or the U.S. banking system, imposed sanctions on Russia's MIR. Earlier, the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic told The Times of Central Asia that it doesn't interfere in the activities of commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan, but only monitors compliance with the country's legislation on combating the financing of terrorist activities and laundering of criminal proceeds. Therefore, Kyrgyz banks can independently decide whether or not to work with the Russian payment system. Kyrgyz banks that have accounts with western financial organizations ceased working with the MIR system in 2022, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After ElCard severed its ties with the Russians, all financial organizations in Kyrgyzstan also stopped accepting MIR cards. This decision has hit Kyrgyz citizens in Russia as well, because Russian ATMs and POS terminals have stopped accepting their ElCards. But, as the Kyrgyz National Bank has explained, this decision will not affect international transfers. "It should be noted that the possibility of money transfers from the Kyrgyz Republic to the Russian Federation and vice versa with the use of mobile applications of commercial banks in the presence of direct contractual relations between Kyrgyz and Russian commercial banks, as well as through money transfer systems without opening an account, will remain," Kyrgyzstan's financial regulator writes on its website. Banks in several other Central Asian countries have refused to cooperate with MIR, also for fear of falling under U.S. sanctions. Since February 27 banks in Kazakhstan have stopped servicing MIR cards. At the same time, the Central Bank of Kazakhstan emphasizes that each Kazakh bank makes this decision independently. "Our position is as follows: we as a first-tier bank do not interfere in the operating system of second-tier banks... It is their commercial interests, economic expediency. They calculate their own risks and benefits by having compliance services," said the Central Bank's bank's press service at the time. Besides Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, Armenia has refused to cooperate with the MIR system for the same reasons. And now Tajikistan -- and even Moscow's closest ally, Belarus -- are distancing themselves from it. The national payment systems of these countries -- Belarus's Belkart and Tajikistan's Korti Milli -- had agreements with the Russians that are similar to MIR's arrangement with the Kyrgyz. Currently Uzbek banks do not accept the MIR payment system either, as the UZCARD processing center has suspended work with the Russian system. In response, the Russian Central Bank has commented...

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Bishkek Tightens Grip on NGOs

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Kyrgyzstan´s President said on Tuesday that he has approved a law that tightens control over non-governmental organizations which receive foreign funding, despite concerns that the measure could erode basic freedoms and services. President Sadyr Japarov defied international pressure to refrain from signing the law, which was passed by an overwhelming margin in Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament on March 14. In a Facebook post, he said the measure would make NGOs more accountable and increase transparency, an assertion that critics say is misleading. For decades, NGOs “just opened bank accounts, took money from foreign donors and used it as they saw fit, including for personal purposes,” Japarov said. “From now on they will be registered with the Ministry of Justice like everyone else. They will open bank accounts. They will start to work openly. There will be no more confusion.” NGOs “spread false information, saying 'we will be persecuted, we will be arrested as agents of a foreign state'. And the donors believed it,” said Japarov, adding that “there will be no persecution” of the groups. Critics say the law represents a slow-moving crackdown that rolls back efforts to develop civil society with the help of foreign governments and other institutions. “We're deeply disappointed that Kyrgyzstan's president Sadyr Japarov has signed the repressive law on 'foreign representatives,' citing misleading, untrue arguments about NGOs,” said the International Partnership for Human Rights, a Brussels-based group. “At least get the facts straight,” Syinat Sultanalieva, a Central Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said of Japarov’s statement, adding that it was wrong of Japarov to suggest that NGOs “never registered and did not submit reports and basically ran amok unchecked.” In his statement, Japarov bristled at criticism from Western-affiliated institutions and said there was a double standard. “Why do non-governmental organizations in developed Western countries register with the Ministry of Justice, the Tax Service, open a bank account and not do the same when they come to us?” he said. “Or are we a second-class country? No, we are not. We will no longer allow such dubious actions.” Japarov had previously accused NGOs of spreading “inaccurate information,” emphasizing that the draft law “is close to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) adopted in 1938 in the United States.”. Some opponents claim it is based on Russia´s “foreign agents” law, and could be used as an instrument of oppression.

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Kyrgyzstan Assassination Plot: Suspected Crime Boss Raimbek Matraimov Held in Pretrial Detention

The corrupt Kyrgyz oligarch Raimbek Matraimov will spend the next month in pretrial detention in Bishkek, after the former deputy head of Kyrgyzstan’s customs service was extradited from Azerbaijan on Tuesday. Matraimov, once known as the country’s “kingmaker” for the influence his clan held over the Kyrgyz Government, was found to have profited from corrupt schemes he ran at the customs service, laundering at least $700 million for himself by allowing companies to evade import fees. In October 2020, upon the formation of a new government led by President Sadyr Japarov, Matraimov was ordered to repay $22.3 million in damages and restitution back to the state. However, rather than fall in line with Kyrgyzstan’s crackdown on organized crime, in recent years Raimbek Matraimov appears to have remained outside the law. The former official is now suspected of orchestrating a recent plot to assassinate members of Kyrgyzstan’s current leadership in retribution for the government’s fight against organized crime. It is the discovery of this plot that led Kyrgyz law enforcement to request Matraimov’s extradition this week from Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, along with his three brothers, Tilek, Islambek, and Ruslan. Of the Matraimov brothers’ seizure in Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (CNSK) commented: “In this regard, on March 22, employees of the CNSK carried out operational and investigative measures, as a result of which all the above-mentioned persons were detained [in Baku]. Currently, investigative measures are being carried out to bring them to justice, according to the laws of Kyrgyzstan.” On Wednesday, March 27, the Birinchi Mai district court in Bishkek ruled that Raimbek Matraimov must stay in pretrial detention at the CNSK’s detention center until at least April 26. Officially, he is suspected of “money laundering and the abduction and illegal incarceration of unnamed individuals”. Matraimov had already been placed on the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list, and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (the ‘Magnitsky Act’), for his previous crimes at the customs service.

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Former Kyrgyz Official Matraimov Extradited in Connection with Assassination Plot

According to statements issued by the special services of Kyrgyzstan, former deputy head of the customs service Raimbek Matraimov is connected with assassins who recently came to Bishkek from Azerbaijan to assassinate members of Kyrgyzstan's leadership. On March 23 Kyrgyz law enforcement became aware that the wanted Matraimov was in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. The State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan (CNSK) sent a letter to the Azeri authorities with a request to detain and extradite him. In Baku this request was fulfilled. Matraimov's brothers were also detained and flown to Kyrgyzstan, the CNSK reported. The investigation into Matraimov alleges that his clan once had its own people in virtually all government agencies, including the police, prosecutor's office, and parliament, where an entire political party worked on his behalf. Matraimov's group had enormous resources, and numerous levers of influence over the authorities. The 2020 coup d'état in Kyrgyzstan was carried out in part because Matraimov's party won the elections. As a result, those elections were deemed as corrupt, and subsequently voided. Matraimov was put on an international wanted list on January 26. He was charged in absentia under two articles of the Kyrgyz criminal code: illegal imprisonment and legalization of criminal proceeds. As The Times of Central Asia has previously reported, on March 22 in the center of Bishkek authorities detained members of a transnational criminal group, who came to Bishkek from Azerbaijan to assassinate the Kyrgyz political leadership. Kyrgyzstan's special services believe that Matraimov is linked to the criminals and is involved in organizing the assassination attempt. It was also reported that the former official was extradited with the aid of a government board of Kyrgyz authorities.