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31 May 2023
The lawyers defending the activists, bloggers, human rights activists, journalists and political activists in the case of the Kempir-Abad water reservoir who were charged by the Investigation Service of the Main Investigation Department of the Interior Ministry of the Kyrgyz Republic with the preparation for the violent takeover of power and organization of mass riots, claim that the constitutional rights of defendants and fundamental principles of the fair trial have been infringed by the investigators since the criminal was initiated. Therefore, the lawyers submit requests to public authorities. They claim that:
1. The Investigation Service of the Interior Ministry of the Kyrgyz Republic must provide completely all the criminal case files for examination, without limiting the right to take their copies.
2. The Investigation Service of the Interior Ministry of the Kyrgyz Republic must execute court decisions on separating and delimiting of criminal case files that are not classified as “secret”.
3. The Attorney-General’s Office of the Kyrgyz Republic should supervise the execution of court decisions, justification and lawfulness of classification of the entire case when the indictment is approved.
4. The Investigation Service of the Interior Ministry of the Kyrgyz Republic should provide defendants with translators who submitted requests to translate procedural and other documents essential for criminal case into an official language, in compliance with the requests of the rules of criminal procedure.
5. The representatives of the public authority, law-enforcement officers and other individuals should refrain from bringing charges prematurely against the accused before the court decision is made in order to avoid the formation of a negative, prejudiced opinion among the public and the courts.
6. The Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic should exercise appropriately the control of laws implemented by public and competent authorities in the present criminal case.
7. International human rights organizations should monitor and assess the implementation of international human rights treaties signed by the Kyrgyz Republic.
8. The judicial authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic should сonsider changing the measure of restraint against the defendants in custody into the house arrest.
Lawyers:
1. Akynbek Nogoev
2. Asel Argymbaeva
3. Kantemir Turdaliev
4. Aliya Sagitova
5. Janysh Barakov
6. Rabiga Sadykova
7. Kanat Hasanov
Description of principal human rights violations in the case of the Kempir-Abad water reservoir:
1) The investigators extended repeatedly the period of detention of individuals and failed to provide reasoned petitions of justification and feasibility of extending the period of detention of individuals. The courts didn’t examine the detailed justification of risks and their analysis as a basis for the following intervention in the rights of individuals to freedom in each following decision made by the investigators to extend the period of detention of individuals.
2) The unlimited opportunity of the inquiry to extend investigative actions infringed the rights of defendants to examine criminal proceedings in a reasonable time.
3) The investigators failed to provide the individual accused with the right to an interpreter. The oral translation isn’t recorded and the defendants have no access to the criminal case files in a native language.
4) In January 2023, the investigators who declassified non-secret materials and documents classified all the criminal cases as “secret”. The automatic and wholesale classification of all the criminal case files enabled the inquiry to hide the gross violations of the legislation and human rights.
5) Today, the investigators haven’t executed the court decisions on separating and delimiting criminal case files that are not classified as “secret”. Therefore, the examination of criminal case files is proceeded secretly, without providing a copy and the opportunity for the lawyers to make copies. Currently the accused and lawyers have to sit in the investigator’s office and write by hand the excerpts from materials. The refusal to take copies of the criminal case files endangers the guaranteed rights of defendants to effective remedies, infringes the guarantees of advocacy, equality and adversary of parties.
6) Prosecuting authorities took the position of an indictment and withdrew themselves from functions of control over the lawfulness and supremacy of law. The accused are deprived of the right to effective protection by the prosecution authorities.
7) The facts of evaluation performances and expressing the views of the accused persons in criminal case are mentioned by the top state officials and officials of investigating and prosecution authorities, therefore the principle of the presumption of innocence is violated.
Since January 2023, all the trials related to the extension of the preventive measure against the accused, challenge of actions and decisions made by the investigators have been held behind closed doors because they are classified as “secret.” Therefore, the defendants are deprived of the right to open and public trial of a criminal case. The relative of defendants, community, the mass media, human rights institutions are limited in the monitoring of fair trial standards.
9) Regardless of the court decisions that have entered into force and found the actions/inactions of investigators illegal and unreasonable, judicial authorities withdrew themselves from exercising judicial control over the execution of their decisions, and statements of lawyers about the execution of court decisions made by the investigators were ignored.
10) All the violations mentioned above are the obstruction of advocacy.