By Catherine Putz

Copyright thediplomat

A court in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, has sentenced two former cameramen for investigative outlet Kloop to five years in prison on charges that they conspired to incite “mass unrest.” Two accountants also charged in the same case were given three-year probationary sentences. The sentences bring to a close a bizarre trial that nevertheless fits into a distressing pattern of Kyrgyz authorities targeting media, particularly investigative media focused on corruption issues. “The trial of former Kloop videographers and accountants on charges of inciting mass unrest has been marred with lack of evidence from the moment of their detention, with prosecution making unsubstantiated claims that Kloop employees helped produce five government-critical videos that were in fact created by Temirov Live, as Bolot Temirov himself confirmed,” Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Diplomat. “This prosecution appears to be retaliation against Kloop’s work on exposing high-level corruption, government misconduct, and human rights abuses in the past – this is independent investigative journalism, not a crime.” Last week, six witnesses and two experts testified for the prosecution, though nothing in their testimony appear to support the state’s accusation. The five videos that formed the core of the state’s complaint were not produced by Kloop, but by a different outlet, Temirov Live. Temirov Live, and its founder, Bolot Temirov, were subject to a crackdown that culminated in the revocation of Temirov’s Kyrgyz citizenship and deportation in 2022 and then the trial of nearly a dozen journalists, many associated with Temirov Live, that concluded largely in acquittals in October 2024 (though a six-year prison sentence was given to Temirov’s wife, journalist Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy). The witnesses who testified in the recent case, mostly Kloop employees, denied having witnessed any calls for mass unrest from the two accused cameramen or the accountants, and denied knowledge of any work for Temirov Live. One of the expert witnesses testified that a slogan deployed by Bolot Temirov in the videos – “Freedom is not given, freedom is sought” – could be interpreted “as an incitement to action against the government,” but he also said that the videos contained no “direct calls” for such action. Judging from Kyrgyz media reports of the trial’s proceedings, the state didn’t present any specific evidence that proved a connection between Kloop and the specific materials cited as the basis for the case. The two cameramen, Alexander Alexandrov and Zhoomart Duulatov, had earlier pled guilty, but on the final day of the trial retracted their confessions. As reported by 24.kg, Alexandrov denied having anything to do with the video materials cited by the prosecution. He said that he was offered house arrest – which he was ultimately denied – in exchange for a confession. “I had to defame myself,” he told the court. Duulatov explained his earlier confession as the product of fear. “The first time I confessed, honestly, I was very scared. It was my first time in a detention facility. The investigators suggested that if I admitted guilt, they would release me under house arrest with a travel ban.” One of the defense lawyers, as Kloop reported, said of the case: “I got the impression that the prosecution wanted to intimidate other Kyrgyz journalists so they wouldn’t associate with Temirov Live or anyone else. It’s like a lesson learned. I got this impression because the case file contains no evidence whatsoever of Duulatov’s or the other defendants’ guilt. None whatsoever.”