Kyrgyzstan: Azimjan Askarov’s Death in Detention Evokes Calls for Accountability
Paris-Geneva, July 28, 2020 – On July 25, 2020, eminent human rights
defender Azimjan Askarov died in custody, after a decade behind bars. Until the
end, and despite his critical health status and repeated calls for his release,
authorities refused to provide the critically ill 69-year-old with independent
medical assistance and to set him free. The Observatory calls for an impartial
and transparent investigation into the death of the defender, so that all those
responsible be held accountable.
Mr. Azimjan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek, was the
director of Vozdukh, a human rights organisation in Kyrgyzstan documenting
widespread police brutality. He was serving a life sentence in penitentiary
colony No. 19 in Bishkek since his arrest on June 15, 2010, immediately after
inter-ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities that were accompanied
by police violence. The human rights defender had been accused of, among other charges,
participating in mass riots, inciting ethnic hatred, and complicity in the
murder of a police officer. The case was built on testimonies extracted under torture and on
statements from Kyrgyz police officers whose work and human rights violations
Mr. Askarov had been documenting. As reported by the Observatory in its 2016 report “Kyrgyzstan at a
crossroads: shrink or widen the scene for human rights defenders,” from the
very beginning of the judicial proceedings in 2010, the case was marked as
politically motivated.
Over the past decade, FIDH Honorary President
Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH Presidents Karim Lahidji and Dimitris Christopoulos, as
well as FIDH Vice President Ales Bialiatski had travelled to Kyrgyzstan within
the framework of Observatory field missions, in an attempt to visit Mr. Askarov
in jail and secure his release. In March 2016, the United Nations Human Rights
Committee (CCPR) found that Mr. Askarov was arbitrarily detained, held in
inhumane conditions, tortured and otherwise ill-treated without redress, and
was not given a fair trial, urging Kyrgyzstan to immediately release him.
Furthermore, in an April 2016 statement, the European Union called on Kyrgyzstan to “fully implement” the
Committee’s Opinion. Those repeated calls were all disregarded by the
authorities.
FIDH’s member organisation Bir Duino asserted
yesterday that, in light of the systematic disregard by the Kyrgyz authorities
to release Azimjan Askarov, including on humanitarian grounds due to the
critical deterioration of his health, his death would amount to an
extrajudicial killing, as defined by the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
On July 22, 2020, Mr. Askarov's lawyer, Valerian
Vakhitov, reported that the human rights defender's health had critically
deteriorated. During the visit, Mr. Askarov was not able to walk by himself,
could barely speak, and presented Covid-19 symptoms, including coughing and
dizziness. The lawyer noted that Mr. Askarov had significantly lost weight: he
had no appetite for over 10 days and had been receiving glucose and vitamin
injections. He died three days later in penitentiary institution No. 47,
where he had been transferred the day before for a medical check-up.
The Observatory is appalled by the death of Mr. Askarov and expresses
its condolences and heartfelt solidarity with his family, colleagues, and
friends. In line with demands from Mr.
Askarov’s family, the Observatory also
urges the Kyrgyz authorities – including the Prime Minister, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, and the Ombudsman – to authorise the transfer of his body out
of the country, and the Uzbek President to allow for the defender to be buried
in Uzbekistan.
The
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was
created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The
objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression
against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu,
the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by
international civil society.