London, August 24, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists reiterates its call for authorities in Kyrgyzstan to withdraw criminal charges against Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, director of anti-corruption investigative outlets Temirov Live and Ait Ait Dese, ahead of her retrial, which is scheduled to begin in Bishkek on Tuesday.
Tajibek kyzy spent more than two years in jail after being arrested in 2024 and sentenced to six years in prison on charges of calling for mass unrest. She was released in March this year after Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court overturned her conviction and sent her case back to a lower court for review on the basis of a United Nations Working Group decision that said she had been arbitrarily detained.
“Makhabat Tajibek kyzy’s original arrest and conviction constitute an egregious injustice and she should not be facing trial at all. Kyrgyzstan now has an opportunity to repair the damage being done to its international reputation by years of sustained press freedom abuses under President Sadyr Japarov,” said Fiona O’Brien, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia regional director. “Kyrgyz authorities should drop the charges against Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, lift all restrictions on her movement, and allow her to work freely.”
At a preparatory retrial hearing on March 23, a court in Bishkek rejected the journalist’s petition to dismiss the case but granted her request to be freed pending a verdict. She remains under a travel ban.
Tajibek kyzy is married to Bolot Temirov, who founded YouTube-based Temirov Live and was deported in 2022 in retaliation for his work. Temirov, who was one of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award winners in 2025, was also effectively stripped of his Kyrgyz citizenship.
In January 2024, Tajibek kyzy was among 11 current and former journalists from Temirov Live, a Kyrgyz partner of global investigative outlet Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), who were arrested on allegations of incitement.
Authorities argued that the outlet’s reporting, which frequently investigates allegations of corruption at the top levels of the Kyrgyz state, “discredited” the government, thereby “indirectly” calling for mass unrest. In October 2024, Tajibek kyzy was convicted alongside Ait Ait Dese presenter Azamat Ishenbekov, who was sentenced to five years in prison. Ishenbekov was later released after a presidential pardon.
Since Japarov came to power in 2020, authorities have launched an unprecedented crackdown on independent reporting in a country previously seen as a regional haven for the free press, shuttering key outlets and jailing journalists.
In October 2025, authorities declared Temirov’s work, that of his outlets, and the work of another OCCRP member — investigative outlet Kloop — “extremist,” banning their distribution in the country.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.