Kyrgyzstani authorities should urgently take all necessary measures to ensure the ongoing safety and security of an imprisoned human rights defender and journalist who has received death threats from a fellow prisoner, 8 eight human rights organizations said today.
Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy, director of the Temirov Live media outlet, was sentenced to jail on unsubstantiated criminal charges of incitement to mass unrest following her arrest in January 2024. She has allegedly been subject to harassment, intimidation, and repeated death threats from a fellow prisoner. On February 18, 2025, Tazhibek Kyzy's husband, Bolot Temirov, published an urgent plea from his imprisoned wife on his website. Temirov, who is living in exile, is the founder of the media outlet TemirovLive.
In the handwritten note, Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy detailed how a fellow prisoner whom she identifies has threatened to poison and kill her. The note also described how the same prisoner subjected the woman human rights defender to harassment and discredited her among other prisoners. For example, the prisoner interfered and did not allow her to bathe and threatened abuse with ethnic slurs. Tazhibek Kyzy warned in the note that if anything happened to her it would be at the hands of the fellow prisoner.
According to information published by TemirovLive, the prisoner in question is serving a 25-year sentence for "murder by a group of persons." Bolot Temirov told the Norwegian Helsinki Committee that he genuinely fears for his wife's life and that she would not have written such a letter if she did not believe her life to be in danger. In April of 2024, she was physically assaulted in pre-trial detention. However, prosecutors accused her of fabricating the injuries and dismissed her claims.
This time, the State Penitentiary Service has also dismissed Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy's allegations, stating that she faces no threats to her safety and asserting that the prisoner responsible for the threats is being held under strict conditions, separate from other inmates.
On February 19, representatives of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture visited Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy in prison. In a public statement, the cCenter reported that the threats against her had been resolved following the appointment of new management and that she had no further complaints against fellow prisoners or the prison administration. Following a visit to Tazhibek Kyzy in prison on February 20, representatives of the National Ombudsperson's Office issued a similar statement, noting that they had also discussed the threats against her with prison management. However, concerns about Tazhibek Kyzy's safety and well-being persist due to her vulnerable position in prison.
Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy and a group of other journalists associated with Temirov Live were detained in January 2024 amid a renewed crackdown on independent media, civil society, and human rights in Kyrgyzstan. On October 10, 2024, a local court sentenced her and her colleague Azamat Ishembekov to six and five years in prison respectively, after finding them guilty on charges of calling for mass -disorder.
The human rights organizations said that the charges and sentences are politically motivated and trumped up in retaliation for the journalists' investigative reporting. The Kyrgyzstani authorities should acquit the journalists convicted and sentenced in this politicized and retaliatory criminal case, and free those who are behind bars.
Prison conditions in Kyrgzystan are harsh and sometimes life threatening, and torture remains a widespread problem, with frequent deaths in custody. In 2020, a political prisoner and human rights defender, Azimjan Askarov, died in prison following years of worsening medical problems for which he did not receive adequate medical treatment in prison.
In 2024, a former politician, Arstanbek Alay was found dead in prison, having seemingly hanged himself. In 2022, a political analyst, Marat Kazakpayev, detained on high -treason charges, died in custody, following lack of medical treatment, Kyrgyzstan's authorities should take prompt and effective measures to ensure Tazhibek Kyzy's safety and protect her against Kyrgyzstan's dangerous prison conditions, the international human rights organizations said.
The European Union delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic , and other missions representing Kyrgyzstan's democratic partners should raise the case with Kyrgyzstan's authorities and strongly urge authorities to make certain that Tazhibek Kyzy's concerns are adequately addressed
The groups are:
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Human Rights Watch
Civil Rights Defenders
International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)
Front Line Defenders
Araminta
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
