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Kyrgyzstan Court releases Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy ahead of retrial

March 28, 2026

Front line Defenders on 27 March 2026 shared an update on human rights defender Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy:

On 23 March 2026, the Leninskii District Court of the City of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, ordered the release of a woman human rights defender Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy from prison. At the preliminary session of the retrial in her case, the Court changed the measure of restraint and granted her release from the penal colony where she had been detained. Her release is conditional upon an order not to leave the country. The retrial is scheduled to begin on 7 April 2026.

Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy is a woman human rights defender and journalist. She is the director of Temirov Live and Ayt Ayt Dece. Temirov Live is a YouTube-based media outlet that investigates and reports on corruption by state and non-state actors in Kyrgyzstan, founded in 2020 by Bolot Temirov, a prominent Kyrgyzstani human rights defender and journalist. Ayt Ayt Dese is a YouTube-based project aimed at popularising human rights issues through the performance and publication of folk songs on human rights topics. Among other topics, Ayt Ayt Dese has covered investigations by Temirov Live.

On 23 March 2026, Leninskii District Court of the city of Bishkek commenced the retrial of the case of Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy with a preliminary session. The retrial was set following a decision of the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan on 10 March 2026. Based on Opinion No. 52/2025 by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial and overturned the previous rulings that sentenced the woman human rights defender to six years in prison.

At the preliminary session, Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy’s lawyers filed three motions. First, the defence attorneys requested the Court to declare the expert witness evidence from previous trials as inadmissible, arguing that authorities had pressured the expert witnesses into giving false testimonies. The issue of evidence tampering by the authorities was previously highlighted in the case of human rights defender and whistleblower Zhoomart Karabaiev, who was on trial for reporting that authorities pressured expert witnesses to provide statements supporting the prosecution. The second motion requested that the Court immediately and unconditionally ceases all judicial proceedings against Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy. The third motion sought a change in her measure of restraint, from detention in the penal colony to release under the condition that she remains in the country. While the Court denied the first two motions, it agreed to change the measure of restraint for Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy, leading to her release later that day.

Upon her release, Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy expressed gratitude for the support she has received since the beginning of the prosecution against her in 2024. However, she also shared that she was subjected to psychological pressure and violence from the authorities in the penal colony, which aimed at exacerbating her isolation from the community supporting and defending her rights.

Front Line Defenders welcomes the Court’s decision to release Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy, who has been targeted solely for her peaceful and legitimate human rights work. The organisation continues to call upon the authorities in Kyrgyzstan to immediately and unconditionally cease all types of persecution targeting the woman human rights defender and drop all charges against her.

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/court-releases-makhabat-tazhibek-kyzy-ahead-retrial

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Kyrgyz court frees Makhabat Tajibek kyzy but fails to drop retaliatory charges 

March 24, 2026
Makhabat Kyzy
Makhabat Kyzy. Photo: Private

The Leninskiy District Court in Bishkek ruled today release Makhabat Tajibek kyzy into house arrest local media reported. Makhabat Tajibek kyzy is a female media director who has spent more than two years in state custody after her arrest in January 2024. [see also https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2025/04/26/central-asia-leaders-must-deliver-on-human-rights-pledges-made-at-summit-say-ngos/

Judge Temirbek Mamatov, who reviewed the case following the ruling by the nation’s Supreme Court, refused to drop the charges and acquit the journalist who participated in the hearing via a web link from the prison colony, Radio Azattyk reported. Mamatov also imposed a travel ban on Tajibek kyzy, and her case is expected to be retried. 

On 23 March 2026 Civil Rights Defenders welcomed the decision allowing Makhabat Tajibek kyzy to return home and to finally reunite with her family and teenage son. We also repeat the call that Civil Rights Defenders and other human rights groups have made since the day Tajibek kyzy and her colleagues were arrested: Kyrgyzstani authorities should drop all unsubstantiated charges brought in retaliation for her legitimate journalistic work. Makhabat Tajibek kyzy needs to be fully acquitted and rehabilitated.  

The director of anti-corruption investigative outlets Temirov Live and Ait Ait Dese, Tajibek kyzy was arrested in January 2024 along with 10 other current and former staff members and sentenced in October of that year to six years in prison on charges of calling for mass unrest. Until today, all of her co-defendants in the case have been released from jail under probation, pardoned or acquitted. 

https://crd.org/2026/03/23/kyrgyz-court-frees-jailed-media-director-but-fails-to-drop-retaliatory-charges/

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Ales Bialiatski free but more human rights defenders must be released in Belarus

December 16, 2025
Belarus: All arbitrarily detained human rights defenders must be released - Civic Space

On 13 December, Belarus dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenko released over 100 political prisoners following an agreement with the United States to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash. Among the released are prominent human rights defenders and Viasna members Ales Bialiatski [Nobel Peace prize and 10 others: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/72682FFF-628F-4A5D-B6B3-52A776FF0E47] and Uladzimir Labkovich, as well as key opposition figures, such as Maryia Kalesnikava [see https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/beff3c8d-0e20-4e88-9efb-cdfcb4c26f40], Viktar Babaryka and lawyer Maksim Znak [https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/cbaf0097-1062-4a82-98ea-f5221f53c3fd]. This positive development, however, constitutes a necessary but insufficient step, as all arbitrarily detained human rights defenders, including former FIDH Vice President and Viasna colleague Valiantsin Stefanovic, Viasna team member Marfa Rabkova [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/12/10/10-december-2024-human-rights-day/], and woman human rights defender Nasta Loika [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2025/08/12/harsh-detention-conditions-of-nasta-loika-in-belarus/]must be released now. 

The undersigned organisations recall that Ales Bialiatski, and Uladzimir Labkovich were arbitrarily detained on 14 July 2021, prosecuted, and sentenced to 10 and 7 years in prison respectively on 3 March 2023 in retaliation for their legitimate and peaceful human rights activities. Their imprisonment constituted a grave violation of Belarus’ international human rights obligations, including the rights to freedom of expression, association, and fair trial.

While their release brings long-overdue relief to them, their families, their colleagues and the human rights community around the world, we stress that this step remains insufficient as long as hundreds of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, activists, and political opponents remain arbitrarily detained in Belarus on politically motivated charges solely for exercising their fundamental freedoms, and repressions against Belarusian dissidents continue unabated. In particular, Valiantsin Stefanovic, former Vice President of FIDH arrested along Ales Bialiatski and Uladzimir Labkovic in July 2021, women human rights defender and Viasna member Marfa Rabkova, detained since September 2020, and founder of Human Constanta woman human rights defender Nasta Loika, arbitrarily detained since September 2022, were not among the released political prisoners. Alongside them, numerous human rights journalists, lawyers, and trade union activists remain arbitrarily detained, including Andrzej Poczobut, Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Ihar Ilyash, Danil Palianski, Pavel Dabravolski, Andrei Aliaksandrau, and many others. 

The undersigned organisations call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners and all those arbitrarily detained, to put an end to judicial harassment and reprisals against civil society, and to repeal repressive legislation used to criminalise peaceful dissent and freedom of expression. The authorities must also ensure full rehabilitation, including the quashing of convictions and restoration of civil and political rights, for all those unlawfully detained for years.

The undersigned organisations further urge the international community to continue to closely monitor the situation in Belarus and to take all available legal, political, and diplomatic measures to ensure accountability for the grave human rights violations and international crimes, including by referring the situation to the International Criminal Court. 

Signatories:

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT),  in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Human Rights Center Viasna

Human Rights Center, Georgia

ILI Foundation, Kazakhstan

Civil Society Institute, Armeniaia

Public Association “Dignity”, Kazakhstan

Promo-LEX Association, Moldova

Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Norway

Östgruppen (Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights)

Austausch e.V., Germany

Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) 

Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Hungary

Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan

aditus foundation, Malta

LIBERECO – Partnership for Human Rights, Germany/Switzerland

Redress

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) 

ARTICLE 19

People In Need

aditus foundation

Front Line Defenders

Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan

European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE)

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)

Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Ukraine

Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine

https://www.article19.org/resources/belarus-all-arbitrarily-detained-human-rights-defenders-must-be-released/

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/freed-nobel-laureate-bialiatski-sees-121508187.html

https://nashaniva.com/en/383735

https://spring96.org/en/news/119315

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Julian Assange is free – but press freedom questions

June 26, 2024

All main media and many NGOs spent considerable attention on the release from prison of Julian Assange [see also: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/129BFFBD-4F20-45B0-B029-78668832D473 – he won 3 human rights awards].  

But many, such as the NGO ARTICLE 19, have a warning: However, this is not a slam-dunk win for press freedom. The US should have never brought these charges. The single remaining criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents puts investigative journalism at severe risk in the United States and beyond. Journalists that cover national security, the armed forces and defence do this day in and day out as part of providing transparency and accountability to hold abuses of power in check.

‘We are all at risk if the government can hold an archaic law, the Espionage Act, over the heads of journalists to silence them.’  The charge under the Espionage Act undermines the principles of media freedom, accountability, and independent journalism that Assange, his legal team, and campaigners had championed throughout his case, which began in 2012. The fact that his release from Belmarsh prison is a result of plea deal is a clear reminder of how important it is to redouble our efforts defending media freedom and pushing for accountability. 

See more on this: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/julian-assange/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxee24pvl94o

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/25/julian-assange-wikileaks-press-freedom-biden-administration

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Azerbaijan: finally full acquittal of Ilqar Mammadov and Rasul Jafarov

April 26, 2020
Ilqar Mammadov speaks to reporters on April 23 in Baku.
Ilqar Mammadov speaks to reporters on April 23 in Baku.
Rasul Jafarov
Rasul Jafarov

“This judgement, which overturns their previous convictions, is a welcome step that finally fully implements the respective decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. The European Union expects Azerbaijan to live up to its international commitments and to continue to implement the remaining decisions of the European Court of Human Rights,” the EU statement said.​ Mammadov, who served more than five years of a seven-year prison term, fought for his full acquittal since his early release in August 2018.​ He was detained in February 2013 and charged with helping stoke unrest in the town of Ismayilli, northwest of Baku. He was sentenced to seven years in jail in March 2014. Mammadov and his supporters insisted the case against him was politically motivated.​
​
Jafarov was arrested in August 2014 and in April 2015 he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison after a court in Baku found him guilty of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and abuse of office. He denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated. ​ Jafarov was granted early release in March 2016 and worked on his full acquittal since then.​ [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/03/18/azerbaijan-pardon-jafarov-ismayilova-aliyev/]

https://www.rferl.org/a/us-eu-welcome-full-acquittal-of-azerbaijani-politician-rights-defender/30575138.html

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Turkmenistan’s cotton activist Matalaev free after 3 years

September 11, 2019

Gaspar Matalaev

valdosta / Pixabay

Jacob Wolinsky blogged in Value Walk of 9 September 2019 about “Gaspar Matalaev Free After Three Years Of Unjust Imprisonment”.  Gaspar Matalaev, a labor rights monitor from Turkmenistan, was released from prison on 6 September after three years’ imprisonment in retaliation for his reporting on forced labor. A court in Turkmenabat sentenced Matalaev on spurious charges of fraud in 2016 and Matalaev served the entire three-year sentence. “We are relieved that Gaspar is out of prison and home with his family where he belongs,” said Ruslan Myatiev, director of turkmen.news, a member of the Cotton Campaign. “But make no mistake, every day that Gaspar spent in prison was a travesty of justice to punish him for his human rights work and intimidate others from speaking out about abuses.”

Gaspar Matalaev, a reporter with turkmen.news who had monitored and reported on the systematic use of forced adult and child labor in Turkmenistan during cotton harvesting, was arrested in October 2016, just two days after turkmen.news published his extensive report on Turkmenistan’s labor practices. While in detention, Matalaev was tortured by electric shock and held incommunicado. Throughout the investigation and trial, he did not have access to effective legal representation or to key files, information, and documents. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions determined that Matalaev’s arrest and imprisonment was arbitrary.

“Matalaev and others take great personal risks when they document these abuses,” said Judy Gearhart, executive director at the International Labor Rights Forum, which hosts the Cotton Campaign. “Turkmenistan’s international partners, including in the U.S., EU, and the international development banks, should use their influence with the government of Turkmenistan to press for greater protections for human rights monitors and journalists.” International Labor Rights Forum honored Matalaev with its annual Labor Rights Defender award in 2019.

More than 100,000 people signed a petition calling on the government of Turkmenistan to release Matalaev. …….

The Cotton Campaign and investors called on companies to sign the Turkmen Cotton Pledge, and work to ensure that cotton from Turkmenistan produced with forced labor does not enter their supply chains. Thus far 70 major apparel and home goods brands and industry associations have signed the pledge.

“Thanks to the work of reporters and human rights defenders like Gaspar Matalaev, companies and consumers can make informed sourcing and purchasing decisions,” said Patricia Jurewicz, vice president of the Responsible Sourcing Network, Cotton Campaign co-founder, and host of the Turkmen Cotton Pledge. “Companies can take a stand to end the human rights abuses in Turkmenistan, and ensure that materials produced with forced labor do not enter their supply chains.”

Cotton Campaign is a global coalition of human rights, labor, responsible investor, and business organizations dedicated to eradicating child and forced labor in cotton production.

 

https://www.valuewalk.com/2019/09/gaspar-matalaev-turkmenistan/

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Kazakhstan President Tokayev pardons Yaroslav Golyshkin and Erlan Baltabai

August 12, 2019
A bit of good news: President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ahead of Eid al-Adha pardoned the convicted journalist Yaroslav Golyshkin and a trade union activist Erlan Baltabai, the President’s spokesman Berik Uali reported. They both were released, according to radio Azzattyk. Editor of the Pavlodar newspaper “Versiya” Yaroslav Golyshkin in October 2015 was sentenced for 8 years on extortion of money from then-governor of Pavlodar region Kanat Bozumbayev in return of secrecy of the compromising information. Golyshkin was conducting journalist research on the supposed rape in the office of the governor. However, the international fund for freedom of speech “Adil soz” claimed that the journalist’s prosecution is connected to execution of his professional duties. According to the Radio Azzattyk, the Kazakh human rights defenders in 2018 called the journalist a political prisoner.

The trade union activist Erlan Baltabai was jailed for 7 years by the Shymkent court for “power abuse”, “violation of requirements of regulations of the trade union”, “embezzlement of trade union“s money” and “causing damage to the complainant”.

https://akipress.com/news:623525:President_Tokayev_pardons_journalist_Yaroslav_Golyshkin_and_activist_Erlan_Baltabai/

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Mauritanian blogger freed after being held for nearly six years

August 1, 2019
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is delighted to report that Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed Mkhaitir, a Mauritian blogger who had been held for more than five and a half years and who was originally sentenced to death for apostasy, was released at dawn yesterday. When contacted by RSF after his release, Mkhaitir thanked all the organizations who have been campaigning on his behalf ever since his arrest in January 2014. He was arrested for a Facebook post criticizing the use of religion to justify discriminatory practices against the blacksmith community to which he belongs. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/06/24/ngos-demand-the-release-of-mohamed-cheikh-ould-mkhaitir-in-mauretania/

The death sentence he received in December 2014 on a charge of apostasy was eventually commuted to two years in prison by a Nouadhibou appeal court in November 2017. He should then have been released but many demonstrations calling for his execution had been held during his trial and the authorities continued to detain him on “security grounds”, denying him access to his family and lawyers.

“We are deeply relieved that he has finally been freed after being held for more than five and a half years in almost total isolation,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “For nothing more than a social network post, he was subjected to a terrible ordeal that violated a decision by his own country’s judicial system. This blogger was francophone Africa’s longest-held citizen-journalist. We thank all those who contributed to his release.”

Mkhaitir had made formal statements of repentance on Facebook and TV in the past few weeks. This was the condition that was set for his release after a meeting at the start of July between outgoing President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and several religious officials. The new president, former defence minister Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, is to be sworn in on 1 August. Mkhaitir’s release was the outcome of a major international campaign to which RSF, many other NGOs and his lawyers all contributed. …. Mainly because of Mkhaitir’s arbitrary detention, Mauritania has fallen 46 places in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index since 2016 and is ranked 94th out of 180 countries in the 2019 Index. Aside from Tanzania, no other country has fallen so sharply in the same period.

https://rsf.org/en/news/mauritanian-blogger-freed-after-being-held-nearly-six-years

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Breaking news: Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo freed in Myanmar

May 7, 2019

All the mainstream media (here Al Jazeera) are reporting that today the Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were freed from Myanmar jail.

Earlier on Tuesday, Myanmar said it will release 6,520 prisoners in an amnesty, according to a statement from the president’s office.  President Win Myint pardoned thousands of prisoners in two mass amnesties last month. It is customary in Myanmar for authorities to free prisoners around the time of the traditional New Year, which began on April 17.

“We are enormously pleased that Myanmar has released our courageous reporters,” Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said in a statement. “Since their arrests 511 days ago, they have become symbols of the importance of press freedom around the world. We welcome their return.” Reuters has said the two men did not commit any crime and had called for their release.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/jailed-reuters-journalists-freed-prison-myanmar-190507024627552.html

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3 Saudi women human rights defenders released but for how long? And what about the others?

March 28, 2019
Amnesty International urges Saudi authorities to release activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef, outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Paris, March 8, 2019
Protesters called for the female activists’ release at the Saudi embassy in Paris last month – copyright REUTERS

Media just reported that Saudi Arabia has temporarily released three female human rights defenders facing charges related to human rights work and contacting foreigners. Two sources told Reuters that three women had been released, and more would be freed on Sunday.[see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/03/13/saudi-arabia-persist-with-trial-for-women-human-rights-defenders/]

Amnesty International and UK-based Saudi rights organisation, ALQST, named the women as Eman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef and Roqaya al-Mohareb. Saudi state media said the releases were only provisional. Lynn Maalouf from Amnesty welcomed the releases but said it should not be on a temporary basis. “They have been locked up, separated from their loved ones, subjected to torture and threats for simply peacefully calling for women’s rights and expressing their views,” she said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47731946

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