Human Rights Defender Appeals to UN from a Prison in Kyrgyzstan

Human Rights Defender Appeals to UN from a Prison in Kyrgyzstan

Azimjan Askarov, a leading human rights activist imprisoned in Kyrgyzstan, has taken his case to the UN Human Rights Committee.

The detailed 115-page complaint was filed on his behalf by the Open Society Justice Initiative and Nurbek Toktakunov, a Kyrgyzstan-based lawyer. It provides extensive evidence that Askarov was subjected to torture, to arbitrary and unlawful detention, and ultimately to an unfair trial process which led to him being sentenced to life in prison. Now aged 61, Askarov previously worked to expose police abuse in southern Kyrgyzstan; he was detained after ethnic violence broke out there in June 2010.

Askarov’s case has also been taken up by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which honored Askarov with an award this year for his efforts to expose human rights abuses. You can read more about Askarov’s work here on our website.

Sign the online petition calling for Askarov’s conviction to be quashed, set up by the CPJ.

OSJ, 15-XI-12