A 23-year-old resident of Suzak district of Jalal-Abad region was accused of an extremist crime and sentenced to a real term for posting a song in Arabic on a social network. This was reported by the human rights movement “Bir Duino” (“One World”).
According to human rights activists, in 2018, the young man registered on the social network “Odnoklassniki” [“Classmates”]. There he had 130 friends, plus about a hundred subscribers. On the social network, the guy listened to different music, downloaded and saved it, noted it in posts. This activity of his led to unexpected and very sad consequences.
On December 10, 2021, officers of the Department of Internal Affairs of Osh city detained T.T. in Jalal-Abad and brought him to Osh. In the department, they confiscated his cell phone and let him go.
Five days later, on December 15, he was summoned to the police, where three audio files and six screenshots were confiscated from his phone. The guy was released, but at the end of December he was detained, the court chose a measure of restraint related to deprivation of liberty.
According to representatives of the human rights organization, during the investigation he was threatened, pressured, demanding to confess. T.T. told law enforcement officers that he didn’t understand the essence of the accusation of distributing extremist materials. He only once downloaded a few songs in Arabic, because he liked the melodiousness of the songs, he listened to them for the soul, didn’t take any more actions. The guy assured that he didn’t know Arabic and didn’t understand the meaning of the songs.
“The seized materials were given to the State Forensic Service under the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic. However, the expert was unable to determine the date of the upload of the audio recording titled “Nasheed – Ummati qadlyaha fajran”, which became the basis of the case. The conclusion of the linguistic and religious expertise indicates that this audio recording is related to the terrorist and extremist organization “ISIS” banned in the Kyrgyz Republic. Also there is propaganda of the ideas of jihad in the song. But in the expert opinion there is no information about how many people noted this post, how many times and who downloaded this file,” human rights activists say.
The defense side initiated an examination at the non-state forensic organization “Expert-South” to clarify the latest events in the account. The expert found that this audio recording was uploaded in November 2018, and the last activity in the account was on December 10, 2021, the day of detention.
At the same time, according to the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic, the materials imputed to the suspect must go through the procedure of recognizing them as extremist through the court, and information about this must be posted on the website of the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic.
“The material found in T.T. is not extremist, as it wasn’t recognized as such by the court, but this didn’t prevent the person from being accused. The Law “On counteracting extremist activities”, which has been in force since 2005, lists the concepts of extremism aimed at forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional order and violating the integrity of the Kyrgyz Republic, undermining security, seizing or appropriating power, carrying out terrorist activities, inciting hatred, humiliating national dignity, and much more,” say representatives of the “Bir Duino” (“One World”).
Human rights activists point out that the charges against T.T. don’t indicate specific signs of extremist activity. It remains unknown what harmful effects have occurred or may have occurred after listening to this song.
“To understand the meaning of this audio file, you need to understand the language in which the song is performed, and T.T. stated that he didn’t know Arabic and didn’t understand the essence of the song. The text of the song doesn’t contain calls for violence, there is no threat to the state system of the Kyrgyz Republic. It’s not clear how listening can threaten the state system of the Kyrgyz Republic. This is not established in the case file,” representatives of the human rights organization say.
Nevertheless, the guy was convicted. In mid-February, the court recognized T.T. guilty of distributing extremist materials and sentenced him to two years in prison.
According to human rights activists, in the case of T.T., there is a violation of the constitutional right to free search, receipt, storage and use of information (Article 33 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic).
“According to the previous Criminal Code, serving a sentence for such a violation could be replaced by probationary supervision, but since December 2021 a new Criminal Code has come into force, where this rule is not applied. The situation in such cases may be aggravated with the adoption of the draft law “On counteracting extremist activity”, in which the concept of extremism is interpreted as an ideology, which may lead to increased state control over all aspects of the public and private life of a citizen,” the “Bir Duino” (“One World”) notes.
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