In Kyrgyzstan, the Supreme Court encroached on the right of the media to have a lawyer

The Kyrgyz Supreme Court wanted to consider the lawsuit of MP Kozhobek Ryspaev against the newspaper “Open politics plus” without a lawyer. This was reported by the public association “Journalists” with reference to the chief editor of the publication Nazgul Mamytova.

“The judges wanted to hear the case without a lawyer who represented our interests. Prior to this, the media advocate sent the official letter asking to postpone the process due to the fact that he was abroad on business trip, but they wanted to make a decision hastily,” Mamytova said.

Recall that the city court of Bishkek left the decision of the first instance in the case of the newspaper “Open politics plus”. Prior to this, the Oktyabrsky district court ordered the newspaper to recover $4300 (300 000 KGS) in favor of deputy Kozhobek Ryspaev. The reason for the lawsuit was the article published in 2018, in which it was reported that the deputy was moving from one party to another, and the author of the material called him a “chameleon”. The MP claimed $4300 (300 000 KGS) as compensation for moral damage, but then he increased the amount to $14 300 (1 million KGS).