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20 December 2011

Front Line Defenders condemns the announcement on 20 December 2011 that the Kyrgyz Supreme Court has upheld the conviction for murder of human rights defender Azimjan Askarov. Reports indicate that the Supreme Court did not seriously address the grossly unfair nature of the original trial and the evidence of torture.

“It seems that the Kyrgyz authorities have decided for political reasons that the original verdict should be upheld,” said Front Line Executive Director Mary Lawlor, “Azimjan Askarov has once again been denied justice and remains in prison because he spoke out for human rights of all persons including the rights of ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan.”

Azimjan Askarov is a prominent human rights defender and Director of the human rights organisation “Vozdukh” (Air) based in Bazar Korgon, Jalalabad region of Kyrgyzstan. He was imprisoned after the violent ethnic clashes that took place in the South of Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2010.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment following an unfair trial at which the main pieces of evidence presented against him were confessions obtained as a result of torture and testimonies of policemen involved in the events. He has received strong support from human rights defenders of all backgrounds in Kyrgyzstan but his case has become a political rather than a judicial issue with different political figures playing to a Kyrgyz nationalist audience.

On 15 September 2010, Azimjan Askarov was one of eight defendants of ethnic Uzbek origin found guilty of inciting national hatred and organising mass disorders which resulted in killing a policeman during ethnically charged clashes in the southern Kyrgyz village of Bazar-Korgon in June 2010. Askarov was accused of complicity in the murder. No credible evidence has been presented to link him to the murder. Front Line Defenders observed part of the first instance trial and reported grave violations of the judicial proceedings, including threats made in the courtroom, and of the right to a fair trial.

Grave concerns have been raised both nationally and internationally regarding the fairness of the original trial, the treatment of Azimjan Askarov, and the credibility of the evidence used to convict him. The Kyrgyz Human Rights Ombudsman Mr Tursunbek Akun, who carried out a parallel investigation, said that there was no evidence to link Azimjan Askarov to the crime – and that the charges against him were clearly politically motivated.

During his interrogation in a prison in Jalal-Abad, Azimjan Askarov was subjected to torture. He was also reportedly beaten, along with other defendants after an appeal hearing at Nooken Regional Court on 5 November 2010. Azimjan Askarov’s health began to deteriorate as a result. On 12 November 2010, following increased pressure from the international community, Azimjan Askarov was transferred to a penitentiary institution in Bishkek where he received medical attention. Representatives of Front Line Defenders met him at the penitentiary in Bishkek where he gave testimony about the torture he had endured but also stressed that some prison officials had tried to help him.

After visiting prominent human rights defender Azimjan Askarov in prison on 16 December 2011 a delegation from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) urged Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court to take fair trial violations and indications of torture into account when reviewing the case of Askarov and other defendants convicted in relation to the June 2010 violence in the south of the country.

“We strongly hope that the Supreme Court, as the country’s top judicial oversight body, takes action to prevent what could amount to a major miscarriage of justice,” said Assia Ivantcheva, the deputy head of ODIHR’s human rights department and head of the delegation. Sadly this has not happened.

Earlier in December, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, visited Askarov in prison and expressed concern about the denial of justice in his case. As a participating State of the OSCE, Kyrgyzstan is bound by international fair trial standards as enshrined in OSCE commitments and is obliged to take effective administrative, judicial and other measures to prevent and punish torture and ill-treatment.

Front Line Defenders has called on the Irish Government which will take on the Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2012 to take up Azimjan Askarov’s case.

http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/n...