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Timing is all the pieces.
Days after Kyrgyz journalist Bolot Temirov’s YouTube channel, TemirLive, revealed a brand new report investigating the actions of an organization owned by the son of Kamchybek Tashiev, head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for Nationwide Safety, Temirov was summoned by police. The authorities knowledgeable him he was going through costs of forging paperwork and illegally crossing the border, along with costs already pending.
Again in January, Kyrgyz police raided Temirov’s places of work within the days after TemirLive revealed a special investigation associated to Tashiev. On the time Temirov and one other Bolot, the well-known akyn or improvisational poet Bolot Nazarov, had been arrested. The authorities claimed to have discovered a bag of cannabis on Temirov; Temirov and his staff claimed the medication had been planted. Though Temirov examined adverse for medication, he was charged with possession.
A Kloop, RFE/RL, and OCCRP report in late January detailed how the Kyrgyz authorities have pursued a marketing campaign to silence Temirov. The marketing campaign began with suspicious automobiles exterior their workplace and a hidden digital camera found in Temirov’s condo after which intensified with the drug raid. After which certainly one of Temirov’s feminine staff was pursued by an alleged member of the state safety forces:
The younger girl had been romantically pursued by a person who approached her at a health club after which invited her on a weekend lakeside getaway. Because it seems, based on a legislation enforcement supply, he was an agent of the UKMK, Kyrgyzstan’s secret service. In the course of the course of their brief relationship, her laptop computer was breached, a sexual encounter was secretly recorded, and a bunch of males who introduced themselves as UKMK brokers pressed her for details about Temirov’s upcoming investigations, threatening to spoil her life and her dad and mom’ status if she refused.
The video was launched.
In January 2022, Temirov informed Kloop, RFE/RL, and OCCRP: “This implies they’re afraid of our investigation. Earlier than, they merely didn’t reply, they tried to elucidate themselves. However the extra we saved doing investigations, the harder that turned.”
“That is how they’ve chosen to do away with one thing that’s of their approach.”
Temirov isn’t any stranger to getting in the way in which. After publishing an investigation in January 2020 with Bellingcat, the open-source investigative group, into the notorious Raimbek Matraimov, Temirov was attacked close to his places of work in Bishkek. It’s not clear that anybody was ever held chargeable for the assault. In February 2021, Temirov — then the editor-in-chief of FactCheck.kg — was amongst a dozen acknowledged as anti-corruption champions by the U.S. State Division.
Temirov was launched in late January with directions to not go away the nation, however clearly didn’t stop his work. On April 18, TemirLive revealed a brand new investigation into an organization owned by Tashiev’s son, Taimuras, which RFE/RL reported lately gained a number of tenders in southern Kyrgyzstan for the availability of gasoline beneath suspicious circumstances. On April 20 and 21 Tenirov was summoned by police for questioning, the place they knowledgeable him of the brand new costs.
Temirov was born in Kyrgyzstan. His household migrated to Russia when he was a toddler and he returned to Kyrgyzstan in 2006. Kyrgyz police have accused Temirov of falsifying paperwork so as to apply for a Kyrgyz passport again in 2008.
As Kloop studies, there have been a number of variations of the accusation aired to this point. At a press convention on April 21 the Ministry of Inside Affairs stated Temirov had “obtained a army ID with a quantity that refers to a different individual.” Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov alluded to a barely totally different model, telling journalists that when Temirov arrived in Kyrgyzstan he “stole another person’s army ID, pasted in his personal photograph, modified his final title and, on the idea of this army ID, obtained a Kyrgyz passport.” Tashiev made the identical argument, that Temirov stole somebody’s ID. Then on April 26, the deputy head of the Bishkek police informed reporters that Temirov used one other individual’s army ID quantity, that the “stealing” was figurative.
Temirov has rejected the fees, telling the Committee to Shield Journalists (CPJ) that he obtained a Kyrgyz passport together with his Kyrgyz delivery certificates.
CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna stated, “Kyrgyz legislation enforcement companies seem intent on silencing journalist Bolot Temirov for nothing aside from his tenacity in overlaying allegations of corruption.” De la Serna referred to as on Kyrgyz authorities to drop the fees in opposition to Temirov and permit Temirov and his employees to proceed their work.
That doesn’t appear to be what Kyrgyz authorities intend to do.
On April 28, the Kyrgyz Prosecutor Normal’s Workplace introduced that its investigation into Temirov’s accusation that the medication had been planted by police had concluded, clearing the police of any wrongdoing.
Final week, Bishkek police stated they supposed to prosecute the brand new costs alongside the drug costs. Temirov may face 10 to fifteen years in jail. He’s referred to as the brand new costs absurd and acknowledged that he doesn’t intend to cease his work investigating corruption.
As Eurasianet’s Ayzirek Imanaliyeva reported, simply as authorities introduced the newest costs a slick anonymously produced video circulated on social media asking “Who’s Bolot Temirov?” and stating that he’s a “fake patriot.”
Timing is all the pieces. That such a video appeared on-line the identical day authorities levied new costs suggests on the very least coordination.
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