Tag Archives: law

Free speech case to be heard in Kyrgyzstan

AUG. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – For human rights workers and freedom of speech activists, these are increasingly worrying times in Kyrgyzstan.

Once considered a bastion of political and social pluralism, Kyrgyzstan appears to be retarding. Earlier this year politicians prepared the ground to implement harsh anti-gay laws, now reports have emerged that say the intelligence services are prosecuting two journalists for alleged defamation.

Eurasianet reported that Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB) has demanded damages of nearly $20,000 from Shorukh Saipov, a journalist who writes for the independent Fergana News website.

In an article in May, Mr Saipov said that the GKNB was extorting money from Muslims by threatening to prosecute them for extremism. The GKNB has said that the article deliberately tried to tarnish its reputation, charges that Fergana News has denied.

Highlighting the pressure on the media in Kyrgyzstan, Mr Saipov’s brother, also a journalist, was murdered in the southern city of Osh in 2007. His killers were never found.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 197, published on Aug. 27 2014)

Georgia delayed jury trials

SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has delayed by two years the roll out nationwide of juries in trials.

In 2010, Tbilisi became the first city in former Soviet Caucasus or Central Asia to allow jury verdicts in some trials. Initially, jury trials were limited to those in which both the prosecution and defence in murder cases agreed to it. The former Soviet Union has no legacy of jury trials and their introduction was considered a great modernising step by the administration of former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Of course introducing jury trials suited Mr Saakashvili’s vision of where Georgia was heading. Mr Saakashvili was an arch-Western reformer. He saw Georgia’s future with the European Union, the United States and NATO. Introducing jury trials was another step in this direction.

The experiment was deemed a success and rolled out to courts in Georgia’s second city of Kutaisi. There have, reports said, been eight murder cases involving juries.

And lawmakers had put forward ambitious plans to push jury trials out across the country not only for murder cases but all crimes that involve a prison sentence from Oct. 1 2014. This has now been delayed.

Poor court infrastructure, a lack of understanding on how juries operate and the extra cost and time of running jury trials were the reasons behind the delay, the civil.ge new website reported quoted the Georgian ministry of justice as saying.

Still, the ambitious plan has only been delayed for two years, rather than scrapped altogether.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Tajikistan sentences coup plotters

AUG. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan jailed seven men for plotting to attack the TALCO aluminium plant in the west of the country. TALCO is Tajikistan’s biggest economic asset and any successful attack would cripple the Tajik economy. The court said the group wanted to overthrow the government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 196, published on Aug. 20 2014)

Georgia responds to US criticism

AUG.11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili responded to criticism from US senators that Georgia was unfairly prosecuting former president Mikheil Saakashvili for abuse of power by saying his prosecution would create a more equal society.The US, Georgia’s most important ally, has said charges against Mr Saakashvili are politically motivated.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 195, published on Aug. 13 2014)

Georgia responds to US criticism

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 195, published on Aug. 13 2014)

Georgia issues Saakashvili arrest warrant

AUG. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Georgia issued an arrest warrant for former president Mikheil Saakashvili on charges that he abused his power and illegally privatised state assets during his 10 years in power. Mr Saakashvili, who is living in Europe, has said the new Georgian government is using the law to settle vendettas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 194, published on Aug. 6 2014)

Georgia charges Saakashvili

JULY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Georgia charged former president Mikheil Saakashvili with illegally breaking up an anti-government demonstration in 2007, taking over a television station and expropriating a businessman’s assets.

Mr Saakashvili, who has previously declined to appear in front of a court to face the charges, described them as politically motivated.

Georgian politics is sharply polarised and since the Georgian Dream coalition, led by Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili, came to power in the parliamentary elections in 2012 and the presidential vote in 2013 it has chased and charged Mr Saakashvili’s former associates with various crimes.

Both the EU and the US have criticised the Georgian Dream for persecuting former high-ranking officials but, despite Georgia’s continued pro-Western agenda, they have been unable to stop the charges.

Mr Saakashvili left Georgia last year, after the presidential election, to avoid facing charges which he said would be fabricated and levied against him.

The United States considered Mr Saakashvili a key ally and charges levied against him will irritate them.

“Commitment to the rule of law means both that everyone must comply with the law in a democratic society and that the legal system should not be used as a tool of political retribution,” the US State Department said in a statement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)

Eurocement pressured in Uzbekistan

JULY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan has annulled a takeover of cement producer Akhangarancement by Russia’s Eurocement in 2006, paving the way for the state to renationalise it. The ruling is a blow for foreign businesses in Uzbekistan and underlines their suspicion of the Uzbek government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)

Tajikistan lifts ban on Turkish serial

JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajiks will be able to watch their favourite Turkish serial Defenders again after the government lifted a ban. The government had said the Defenders showed scenes related to extremism. Kazakhstan is also considering a ban. More likely the problem is fear of Turkish cultural and political influence.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Construction targeted in Kyrgyzstan

JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an effort to dampen souring corruption rates, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev signed into law a bill that will force municipal governments to post in public their plans about various contraction projects. Construction is a major source of corruption in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)