The highest court in Kyrgyzstan has annulled the six-year prison sentence handed to an investigative journalist and ordered a fresh legal proceeding, following sustained global condemnation.
On Tuesday, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, a reporter for the outlet Temirov Live, and directed the case back to a lower court for review. Until this ruling, she remained the only journalist from her newsroom still serving time after a broad crackdown on the press.
Tazhibek kyzy, along with ten former colleagues, was arrested during police operations in January 2024. Officials accused them of inciting and organizing mass unrest. However, rights groups and fellow journalists argue the charges were a direct response to the outlet’s investigations into high-level government corruption in this Central Asian nation. She was found guilty and sentenced in October 2024.
The Supreme Court’s decision to revisit the case came after intense diplomatic and public pressure. In November 2025, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention demanded her immediate release and called on authorities to halt intimidation against independent media. Prior to that, in April 2025, the U.N. Human Rights Office had urged a review of the convictions and the removal of conditional sentences on other reporters.
Bolot Temirov, the editor-in-chief of Temirov Live, credited the U.N. intervention with influencing the court’s action. “It was the U.N. working group’s conclusion that pushed the court to begin its consideration,” he said. “That conclusion laid out all the evidence that this was an illegal arrest and unlawful prosecution. Still, it’s better than nothing.”
Of the eleven journalists initially detained, colleague Azamat Ishenbekov also received a prison term but was later pardoned by the president. Two others, Aktilek Kaparov and Aike Beishekeeva, were released on probation, while the remaining reporters were acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
The prosecution of the Temirov Live journalists has drawn widespread rebuke from organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders, who accuse Kyrgyzstan of deliberately stifling free speech.