(Bishkek) – In a troubling development for press freedom in Kyrgyzstan, a court sentenced two former media workers from the independent investigative outlet Kloop to five years in prison on September 17, 2025. Joomart Duulatov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov were convicted on dubious charges of “public calls for mass unrest,” according to a statement from Human Rights Watch. Two accountants from Kloop also faced similar charges but received sentences of three years probation, allowing them to avoid incarceration.
The prosecution of Duulatov and Aleksandrov stemmed from their alleged involvement in the creation of five videos critical of the government, which were published on the Temirov Live YouTube channel run by Bolot Temirov, an investigative journalist currently in exile. Despite claims from Temirov that he had no collaboration with the accused journalists and that he had produced the videos independently, the court proceedings proceeded without this crucial context. Kloop’s legal team has announced plans to appeal the district court ruling at the city court level.
Human Rights Watch’s Central Asia researcher Syinat Sultanalieva criticized the trial, stating, “Aleksandrov and Duulatov’s cases were marred from the outset with the prosecution failing to provide tangible evidence for their conviction. Their verdicts appear baseless and should be vacated. They demonstrate the government’s effort to dismantle media freedom and to stifle any dissenting voices.”
The two journalists, who were once camera operators for Kloop and had left the organization by the time of their arrest, were detained on May 28, 2025, during a sweeping operation by the State Committee on National Security that targeted at least six other current and former Kloop employees. Kloop had been shuttered by a Supreme Court decision in August 2024 but continued its operations under a different organization.
Authorities failed to clarify the reasons for the detentions, conducting searches of the media workers’ homes without search warrants and confiscating personal property, including computers, cameras, and phones. The detained individuals were interrogated for hours without access to legal representation, denied the ability to contact family or colleagues.
On May 29, a spokesperson for the presidency claimed on Facebook that Temirov had compensated the detained Kloop journalists to conduct “false” investigations. Most detainees were eventually released after extensive questioning but were subjected to gag orders.
A video posted by the security agency on May 30 featured several detainees expressing remorse for their involvement with Kloop, describing its activities as “destructive,” and vowing to cease all collaboration with the platform.
The trial for Duulatov, Aleksandrov, and two other Kloop staff members commenced on August 6. While all four initially pleaded guilty, they retracted their confessions during a subsequent hearing on September 9, citing coercion during detention and promises of leniency from investigating officers. They denied the charges against them, with defense lawyers asserting that “all the videos cited by the prosecution were published by Bolot Temirov” and that “neither Kloop Media nor the defendants themselves distributed them.”
Throughout four court hearings, the prosecution failed to present any substantive evidence, including technical analyses from confiscated devices or financial records that could corroborate their claims. The court dismissed evidence from court-appointed experts, who found no incitements to unrest in the videos, nor any link connecting the defendants to the content published by Temirov.
The judge provided no rationale for her ruling, simply noting that the defendants had confessed during interrogation while disregarding their retractions.
The convictions of these journalists are part of a disconcerting trend targeting those involved in anti-corruption reporting. Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, director of Temirov Live and Temirov’s wife, was sentenced to six years in prison on similar charges on October 10, 2024. She had been detained in early 2024 along with ten other journalists during a coordinated raid reminiscent of the operation against Kloop staff. Four of those detainees faced charges of “public calls for mass disorder,” with two receiving probation and one sentenced to five years but later pardoned by President Japarov.
The continued persecution of Kloop staff sends a chilling message to independent voices in Kyrgyzstan, posing a significant threat to the rule of law. Human Rights Watch is urging Kyrgyzstan’s international partners, particularly the European Union, to take immediate action against this systematic erosion of press freedom.
“The sentences against the former Kloop employees mark a dark turning point for press freedom in Kyrgyzstan,” Sultanalieva remarked. “President Sadyr Japarov’s government has transformed what was once a regional haven for independent media into a country where journalists face years in prison simply for doing their jobs.”
