Amnesty International Report 1997 - Kyrgyzstan

Three men detained on defamation charges were prisoners of conscience. There were allegations of ill-treatment by police and by militias operating under the authority of so-called elders' (aksakal) courts. At least two death sentences were passed and at least one execution took place. A referendum in February approved constitutional changes proposed by President Askar Akayev which increased his powers. A new government appointed by the President took office in March. In October, Kyrgyzstan acceded to the UN Convention and the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Prisoners of conscience Topchubek Turgunaliyev and Dzhumagazy Usupov, political activists who had been detained since late December 1995, stood trial in April on charges of "defaming" and "insulting" the President and "inflaming national discord or hatred". Both men were found guilty but received one-year suspended prison sentences and were released. Prisoner of conscience Rysbek Omurzakov, a journalist, was arrested in April and charged with "defamation" of the President. In July, he was found guilty and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, but in the same month an appeal hearing substituted a suspended sentence and he was released. Dzhumagazy Usupov was among several people arrested in December in connection with the founding congress of a new opposition movement, For Deliverance from Poverty. All were released the same day except for Dzhumagazy Usupov, who was given an administrative punishment of 15 days' detention for "organizing an unsanctioned meeting". He was a prisoner of conscience. Topchubek Turgunaliyev also was arrested again in December, on an embezzlement charge, and was on trial at the end of the year. His supporters claimed that he was being prosecuted to punish him for his opposition political activities, including the recent foundation of the movement For Deliverance from Poverty. He was a possible prisoner of conscience. Reports were received early in the year that militias operating under the authority of so-called elders' courts had detained people and ill-treated them, administering punishments which included flogging and stoning. The authorities appeared to ignore attempts to seek redress for such actions. The courts had been established by presidential decree in early 1995 and given responsibility for examining cases of administrative violations; property, family and other disputes; and minor crimes passed to them by state procurators. Full statistics on the application of the death penalty were not available, but at least two death sentences were known to have been passed during the year. One of these, passed on Lyubov Sirotkina in January, was changed on appeal in March to 15 years' imprisonment. The other, passed on Nikolay Sokolov in April, was changed by judicial review to 15 years' imprisonment in December. At least one execution was known to have taken place. Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of prisoners of conscience detained for defamation of the President. The organization argued that, while all who believed themselves to have been victims of defamation had a right to seek redress through the courts, it was widely recognized that the degree of restriction permitted to protect an individual's reputation should be more limited in the case of a public official than a private person. Public officials who considered themselves defamed should be able to seek redress through civil laws in order to protect their reputation, and criminal legislation should not be used in such a way as to stifle criticism of public officials, or to intimidate those who voiced legitimate concerns about the actions or practices of public officials. Amnesty International also assessed the charge against Topchubek Turgunaliyev and Dzhumagazy Usupov of "inflaming national discord or hatred" as having been without foundation. Amnesty International sought further information from the authorities about the basis for the prosecution of Topchubek Turgunaliyev on a charge of embezzlement. Amnesty International called for investigations into all cases of alleged ill-treatment of criminal suspects. Regarding the alleged activities of militias attached to the aksakal courts, it called for an end to punishments such as stoning and flogging, as well as illegal detention and the ill-treatment of people so detained. The organization also noted that the aksakal courts did not satisfy the requirements of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Kyrgyzstan acceded in 1995. Amnesty International continued to call for commutation of all death sentences and for total abolition of the death penalty. In May, the organization published a report, Kyrgyzstan: A tarnished human rights record.