Release of Azimzhan Askarov issue repeatedly raised at the UN
Official representatives of Kyrgyzstan made a speech at a session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group. They told about the human rights situation over the past four years and received a number of proposals from the UN members.
A representative of Ireland called on the Kyrgyz authorities to release the human rights defender Azimzhan Askarov, sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge of the Supreme Court Keneshbek Toktomambetov noted during the report that the verdict was delivered in accordance with the laws of the country. He added that Askarov’s cassation appeal would be considered in the near future.
On December 2, 2019, the Supreme Court decriminalized a number of counts and commuted the punishment of the human rights defender under certain articles. However, the main article of the charge «Complicity in Murder» of the Criminal Code, under which Azimzhan Askarov received the life sentence, remained.
Azimzhan Askarov is accused of inciting ethnic hatred and murder of a policeman during the June events in the south of the republic in 2010.
