Sentenced to life in prison, Azimzhan Askarov, fell ill. He has a fever and cough. His lawyer, Valerian Vakhitov, told 24.kg news agency.

According to unconfirmed information, the prisoner has pneumonia. Human rights activists said that Azimzhan Askarov needs to be released, because he will not be able to receive qualified medical assistance in the prison colony where he is kept. They remind that Azimzhan Askarov is an elderly person and is at risk.

However, the State Penitentiary Service refutes the information that the convict is ill. According to it, none of the inmates appealed to the medical units of the colonies with complaints of symptoms of pneumonia or coronavirus.

The Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan did not send the case of the sentenced to life in prison Azimzhan Askarov for review due to newly discovered evidence. Thus, the appeal of Askarov’s lawyers was denied on May 13.

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.