Kyrgyz Court Jails Kloop Staff on Fabricated Charges
A Kyrgyz court on Wednesday sentenced two former employees of Kloop, a leading investigative newsroom and OCCRP partner, to five years in prison and gave three years of probation to two former accountants, all charged with conspiring to “incite mass unrest,” officials said. Lawyers and Kloop management have said the case was baseless.
“Lawyers convincingly proved the complete groundlessness of the charges,” said attorney Nurbek Toktakunov. Kloop reported his words, adding that “the lawyers thoroughly analyzed all the prosecution’s evidence, and it turned out that it was all defense evidence.”
During testimony, Alexandrov and Duulatov, the cameramen, retracted confessions given during interrogations without a lawyer present, claiming they were coerced with promises of house arrest. Linguist experts who reviewed the case said they found no direct calls for mass riots and questioned why attorneys focused on Kloop when analyzing a video by investigative journalist Bolot Temirov.
Court documents released during hearings on August 5 show that much of the prosecution’s case relied on five videos critical of the government, which prosecutors said the cameramen helped produce. Kloop said the videos were never published by the outlet and instead appeared on Temirov Live, another investigative outlet that was dismantled during a crackdown last year and now operates in exile.
The case against Kloop reflects a broader clampdown on independent media in Kyrgyzstan under President Sadyr Japarov, who took office in October 2020. In January 2024, police raided the offices and apartments of 11 Temirov Live employees, detaining them on charges of “inciting mass unrest.”
A separate trial concluded in late 2024: seven staffers were acquitted, two reporters were released on probation after eight months in detention, and two others received prison terms — Tazhibek Kyzy was sentenced to six years and Azamat Ishenbekov to five. Ishenbekov was later pardoned by the president.
In August, the independent channel April TV announced its closure following a court verdict; the Prosecutor’s Office had filed a lawsuit citing the need to “protect public safety and prevent the dissemination of illegal information.”
Kyrgyzstan’s crackdown on independent media has drawn international criticism. In 2024, the country fell more than 50 places in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, while Freedom House and other watchdogs documented a sharp decline in press freedom.
Yuliya Varava