11:28, 10 January 2023, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency , by Darya PODOLSKAYA
Representatives of the Coalition for Equality of Kyrgyzstan demand to overturn the guilty verdict against a human rights activist Kamil Ruziev. They appealed to the authorities of the country.
The Supreme Court is to consider the cassation appeal of Kamil Ruziev’s lawyers against the decision of the Issyk-Kul Regional Court today, which found the human rights activist guilty of forging documents and fined 80,000 soms.
The Coalition for Equality of Kyrgyzstan is calling on the authorities to drop the unfounded charges against the activist and uphold the acquittal handed down by the Karakol City Court in August 2022.
Members of the Coalition point out that the judicial board of the Issyk-Kul Regional Court denied Kamil Ruziev access to justice, and remind: in December 2020, UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor called on the authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic to stop persecuting Kamil Ruziev and start investigation of facts of violations of laws, which he reported. She stated that the human rights activist was persecuted after he voiced the facts of torture by law enforcement officers and shortcomings in their work.
Employees of the State Committee for National Security detained the human rights activist on May 30, 2020 in Karakol. The court placed him under house arrest. Kamil Ruziev was accused of using a fake medical certificate. According to investigators, the human rights activist allegedly did this in order to extend the deadline for appealing against the decision of the Karakol City Court in one of the cases on which he worked. However, in 2021, the examination confirmed that the certificate was real.
