First someone bugged Bolot Temirov’s apartment. Then police raided his office and allegedly planted drugs on him.

Now, Kyrgyz law enforcement has gone even farther: On May 17, the journalist announced that the interior ministry had declared his passport invalid, potentially stripping him of his Kyrgyz citizenship.

Initially, museum administrators said that only a few worthless objects had been lost. Then, in an earlier investigation, OCCRP and Kloop found dozens more. New documents show the true number is in the many hundreds — and officials still aren’t talking.

Kyrgyzstan’s National Historical Museum (Photo: Azat Ruziev/Kloop)

Kyrgyz authorities accused investigative journalist Bolot Temirov on Tuesday of forging documents and illegally crossing state borders after the news outlet he leads published a story about the son of a high-ranking official winning state contracts.

The Kyrgyz presidency is expected to propose new and amended laws that will allow citizens to legalize their illegally obtained assets. Opponents claim that the proposed draft legalizes corruption.

Tightening the noose on independent media, the Kyrgyzstan government proposed on Monday a new procedure that would allow the regime to block websites accused by anyone of spreading fake news, even in cases where no evidence is provided.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is deeply concerned by the Kyrgyz government’s mounting assault on press freedom.

Credit: James O'Brien / NEXT TV / Tatarstan.ru

Describing themselves as “activists” and “bloggers,” four people held a press conference in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday calling for the country to adopt a “foreign agent law” analogous to one that has been used to persecute independent media outlets in Russia.

A leading independent journalist says police planted drugs on him as retribution for his exposés of corruption. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s how sex, lies, and secret surveillance were deployed against one of the country’s top investigative outlets.

Dozens of people protested on Sunday outside the interior ministry headquarters in Bishkek against the arrests of a poet and of an investigative journalist on drug charges that colleagues allege were politically motivated.

Not much has changed in Kyrgyzstan’s customs service since Matraimov’s firing and conviction. His successor, Zamirbek Karashev, appears to be part of his network — and his family also enjoys the finer things.

According to an associate, Kyrgyzstan’s former deputy customs chief had to raise money from friends and relatives to pay the fine. This didn’t appear to prevent him from buying a new penthouse right next door to his old one.

A court in Kyrgyzstan ordered on Wednesday former Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov to remain in detention for the next two months as part of an investigation into corrupt practices involving the country’s disputed Kumtor gold mine.

Renovating Kyrgyzstan’s top museum was supposed to take 18 months. Five years later, a fire has destroyed valuable exhibits, the museum has been engulfed in scandals, and curators say the authorities covered up the problems inside the institution.

Fountains spray on the square in front of the National History Museum of Kyrgyzstan, seen here in January 2018 after repairs of its distinctive facade. The Soviet modernist building is one of the most iconic structures in Bishkek. (Credit: Azat Ruziev/Kloop)

Kyrgyzstan has closed a money laundering case against former deputy chief of customs Raimbek Matraimov and released him from custody, putting an end to the investigation of a corruption scandal that marked last year’s election and made him hand over more than US$24 million to the country’s budget.

Kyrgyzstan is the only Central Asian country that publishes its officials’ asset declarations. But the system, meant to fight corruption, has been degrading for years. Now, in a crucial election year, it has plunged into darkness.

The United States is offering US$5 million for information that could  help disrupt the criminal organization of Kyrgyzstan’s most powerful gangster, Kamchibek Kolbayev, who was arrested in October but suddenly released from pre-trial detention this week.

After agreeing to compensate the Kyrgyz government for years of corruption, the powerful former official went on a last-minute shopping spree, buying up apartments across Bishkek to give to the authorities.

A Bishkek court has put Raimbek Matraimov, former deputy head of the Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Service, in pre-trial detention on Saturday, after the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) rearrested him last week.

A district court in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, ordered Raimbek Matraimov, the former deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz customs service to pay a US$3,000 fine after he pleaded guilty on Thursday to orchestrating numerous corruption schemes and agreed to testify against his accomplices.

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan have detained former Prime Minister Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev over allegations of corruption and profiteering relating to gold-mining operations in the Issyk-Kul region, including an environmentally-protected area.