-To the Office of the Unit­ed Nations High Com­mis­sion­er for Human Rights.

-To the Ambas­sadors of the Coun­cil of Europe, USA, UK, France, and Ger­many in Kyrgyzstan.

-To Inter­na­tion­al and Kyr­gyz Human Rights Organizations.

-To the Media.

 

We, the Kem­pir-Abad pris­on­ers, who have been detained for two years and are being tried behind closed doors, are writ­ing to you because our lawyers—Erkin Bulek­baev, Erkin Sadan­bekov, Akyn Tok­tal­iev, Zhan­ish Barakov, Akyl­bek Abazbekov, Asel Argym­bae­va, Chi­nara Jakup­beko­va, Akyn­bek Nogo­ev, Munar­bek Supataev, Bakyt Avtandil, Rabi­ga Sadyko­va, Kan­temir Turdaliev—are being pres­sured and per­se­cut­ed by Judge Marat Sydykov and law enforce­ment agencies.

Not only does Judge Marat Sydykov, along with pros­e­cu­tors, sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly vio­late our rights, but they also deprive our lawyers of their right to receive med­ical treat­ment, to par­tic­i­pate in oth­er court ses­sions and inves­ti­ga­tions, and their right to work as stip­u­lat­ed by the Con­sti­tu­tion and inter­na­tion­al con­ven­tions. They intim­i­date and pres­sure them for not being able to attend court ses­sions for legit­i­mate rea­sons. Sydykov has banned well-known lawyer Akyn Tok­tal­iev from par­tic­i­pat­ing in tri­als based on false infor­ma­tion about the “inva­lid­i­ty of his law license.” Addi­tion­al­ly, Marat Sydykov has appealed to the Min­istry of Jus­tice of the Kyr­gyz Repub­lic to revoke the law licens­es of lawyers Bulek­baev, Abazbekov, and Sadan­bekov with­out any cause, while also intim­i­dat­ing oth­er lawyers.

We have infor­ma­tion that the Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Kur­mankul Zulu­shev him­self is involved in revok­ing lawyer E. Bulekbaev’s license and has sent a let­ter to the Ethics Com­mis­sion of Lawyers.

More­over, the GKNB has start­ed mon­i­tor­ing our lawyers’ pres­ence at court ses­sions. GKNB offi­cers forcibly brought lawyers E.Sadanbekov and K.Turdaliev to court despite their ill­ness­es. They called the wife and daugh­ter of lawyer E.Sadanbekov, demand­ing they find their father.

GKNB offi­cers demand­ed that the lawyers attend the tri­als, and those who dis­obeyed were sum­moned for a “dis­cus­sion” at the GKNB. Inves­ti­ga­tor sum­moned lawyer E.Bulekbaev to the GKNB with­out rea­son. Those with rel­a­tives in gov­ern­ment posi­tions are sub­ject­ed to pres­sure and threats.

Judge M.Sydykov and law enforce­ment offi­cers intim­i­date and pres­sure our lawyers in var­i­ous ways, appoint­ing state lawyers to us, there­by lim­it­ing our right to qual­i­fied legal assis­tance and the right to choose our lawyers, as pro­vid­ed by the Constitution.

We, the Kem­pir-Abad pris­on­ers, con­sid­er the pres­sure on our lawyers to be an unprece­dent­ed inci­dent. We believe that such actions are unac­cept­able in a law­ful state.

In this regard, we, the Kem­pir-Abad pris­on­ers, are forced to refuse the lawyers who have defend­ed us for the past two years.

We request that you inves­ti­gate these facts, take them into account in human rights reports, inform the insti­tu­tions that pro­tect democ­ra­cy in your coun­tries, and engage in human rights nego­ti­a­tions with our government.