A Kyrgyz court on Tuesday ordered the release of two former cameramen from Kloop, OCCRP’s member center in Kyrgyzstan.
Kloop announced that ex-employees Alexander Alexandrov and Joomart Duulatov received three years’probation and were released immediately in the courtroom. The sentences for two former Kloop accountants—also three years’ probation—remained unchanged.
Both cameramen pleaded guilty during the last court hearings in hopes of receiving lighter sentences. The case against the former Kloop staff has been ongoing since late May 2025, when the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) detained eight people.
All but Duulatov and Alexandrov, were later released after they apologized on camera. Duulatov and Alexandrov were instead charged with inciting mass unrest along with Kloop’s two former accountants. In September the cameramen were sentenced to five years in prison, while accountants received three years’ probation.
The convictions are part of a broader pattern of pressure on independent media in Kyrgyzstan under President Japarov, who took office in October 2020.
On October 27, a Kyrgyz court labeled Kloop and another investigative outlet, Temirov Live, as “extremist.” Their publications were designated the same, and authorities banned all online and social media activity from the newsrooms.
Days later, Kyrgyz authorities requested Interpol to issue an international warrant against Kloop’s co-founder Rinat Tuhvatshin, but the organization declined, saying at the time that its rules bar politically motivated requests.
Temirov Live and its founder, Bolot Temirov, have also faced escalating pressure. In January 2024, police raided the offices and homes of 11 Temirov Live employees and charged them with “inciting mass unrest.” Seven were later acquitted, two received three years’ probation, and two—Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy and Azamat Ishenbekov—were sentenced to six and five years in prison. Ishenbekov was later pardoned by the president.
