Kempir-Abad Protesters

Klara Sooronkulova, Rita Karasartova, Gulnara Dzhurabayeva, Asya Sasykbayeva, and Perizat Suranova are civil society activists facing up to 25 years in prison for their opposition to a land swap deal between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

In October 2022, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan agreed to a negotiated deal that would settle a longstanding territorial dispute between the countries. Not long after the final deal was announced it was revealed that a portion of land that Uzbekistan would receive from Kyrgyzstan included the Kempir-Abad reservoir, which has been a critical source of water for both countries. Citizens in Kyrgyzstan that live near the Kempir-Abad reservoir immediately expressed concerns that if the border deal is signed, they will eventually lose access to the water reservoir.

There was particular concern that the negotiations were conducted in secret and that the full legislation approving the deal was not made public. Even members of parliament voting on the deal were only allowed to see a portion of the treaty the day before the vote. Despite public pressure, the President Japarov signed the treaty on November 3, 2022.

On October 22, 2022, Klara Sooronkulova, Rita Karasartova, Gulnara Dzhurabayeva, Asya Sasykbayeva, and Perizat Suranova, along with other politicians, activists and citizens, formed the Committee for Protection of the Kempir-Abad Reservoir to discuss the border deal and the concerns of local citizens. At the time they joined the Committee, all five of the women were active members of civil society.

• Sooronkulova is chairwoman of the NGO “School of Law” and a chairwoman of the Committee to Protect Political Prisoners. She is also a former Constitutional Court judge and a Reforma Party Leader.
• Karasartova works at the Institute of Civic Analysis, a human rights organization and think-tank that monitors the rotation process within the Kyrgyz judiciary system.
• Dzhurabayeva is a human rights defender for women who has been collaborating with Interbilim, an organization promoting democracy, since 2020. She is also a former Central Elections Commission (CEC) member.
• Sasykbayeva is the founder and former head of Interbilim. She is also an ex-deputy of Parliament.
• Suranova is a member of the Women’s Democratic Network of Kyrgyzstan.

On October 23, 2022, the day after the Committee was formed, law enforcement officials began conducting searches of the Committee members’ residences, including those of the five women. At the time of the searches, officials did not provide evidence of a warrant or other lawful order for the search.   Video footage taken during the search of Karasartova’s home shows that police arrived at her house in plain clothes, did not immediately identify themselves in the required manner or show identification cards, and forced entry into her home. Despite failing to show identification documents or search warrants, the police took personal items such as phones, computers, notebooks and other belongings from the homes of the Committee members.  Police also tried to prevent any video recordings or documentation of the arrests and searches.

After the searches of their residences, the Committee members, including the five women, were arrested and taken to various police stations in and around Bishkek, where their arrests were registered and they were shown orders authorizing their arrest by investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  Later that evening, the law enforcement officers notified the women that they were being held as suspects and transferred them to a temporary detention center at the Bishkek Central Internal Affairs Directorate.  The women were initially placed under arrest for 48 hours.

According to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior on the date of the arrests, “in the course of special investigative actions, evidence was obtained about the involvement of individuals in organizing and preparing for mass riots, followed by an illegal seizure of power” which was provided as the reasoning behind the arrests and searches.   However, participants in the Committee meeting denied this. Following the arrests, recordings of wiretapped conversations between the Committee members were published on the internet. These recordings were edited, and the conversations had been constructed to seem like some of the detainees, including Sooronkulova, were calling for an overthrow of the government.

Between October 24 and October 25, 2022, the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek held a judicial hearing of the five women “to determine the measure of restraint…for alleged organization of mass disorder.”   The women were charged with “organizing mass riots…associated with violence.” Sooronkulova was charged with an additional count of organizing riots, which relates to an internet post from almost a year prior about an organized flash mob. During these proceedings, the court ordered them to be placed in pretrial detention for 2 months while authorities investigated the charges.   The Ombudspersons Office monitored the hearings and found human rights, constitutional, and criminal procedure violations, including not notifying the detainees of the grounds for the criminal case and conducting the court session without a decision to initiate a criminal case.

The women spent approximately five months imprisoned as part of their pretrial detention. In November 2022, Sooronkulova and Karasartova began a hunger strike in protest of their detention. As a result of the hunger strike and the detention conditions, Sooronkulova’s health sharply declined. On February 21, 2023, she was transferred from detention to a hospital where she received surgery.  After her surgery, she was immediately transferred back to detention without receiving proper care for recovery, and developed pneumonia in the unsanitary prison conditions. Suranova was also hospitalized and had to undergo an operation. Following the operation and discharge from the hospital, she was placed under house arrest on March 6, 2023.

On April 12, 2023, Dzhurabayeva, Sooronkulova, and Sasykbayeva were released from pre-trial detention and placed under house arrest. Karasartova was transferred to house arrest on June 23, 2023.  On April 25, 2023, the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan moved to press additional charges against these four women, including forcible seizure of power.

In January 2023, Investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs classified the investigation against the Committee members as a state secret.  In March 2023, the Bishkek City Court partially removed the secrecy classification from the case, requiring the investigator to separate the volumes of the case that contain secret data and those that do not.  Despite the partial removal of secrecy, the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek refused the requests of the women to open the trial to the public.

On June 12, 2023, the indictment of the women was filed with the Pervomaisky District Court of Bishkek. Each of the women face charges for conspiring to organize mass riots, which carry up to 10-year imprisonment.  Separately, under Article 326 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Petitioners face up to 15 years of prison time.  The law enforcement officials may utilize these aggravated charges as a prerequisite to return the women from house arrest to a pre-trial detention center.

On June 22, 2023, the trial against the women began at the Pervomaisky District Court.  They were tried alongside 22 other members of the Committee, making a total of 27 defendants at trial. On June 26, 2023, the judge ordered that the trial be held in closed court sessions.  In justifying the decision to close the trial, the judge referred to the decision of the investigating team to classify all case materials for the entire period of the investigation.

The five women were acquitted on June 14, 2024. However, they remain on house arrest pending an appeal. Under the terms of their house arrest, the women are required to adhere to a curfew between the hours of 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM, and are not permitted to leave their city of residence without prior approval from authorities. Moreover, Sasykbayeva is prohibited from accessing the internet under the terms of her house arrest. The terms of the house arrest are monitored for compliance through consistent surveillance by the state security services, who are frequently present outside of the women’s homes.

In June 2024, Freedom Now and the law firm Proskauer Rose LLP filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of the five women.