“If something happens to me, you should know it’s her,” wrote the jailed wife of Bolot Temirov, a prominent Kyrgyz investigative journalist, in a letter to her husband. She complained that her cellmate has been bullying and threatening her, while prison guards have failed to provide any protection.
Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, herself a journalist, was arrested in January 2024 during a crackdown on employees of Temirov Live, a YouTube-based media outlet founded by her husband and dedicated to investigating and exposing corruption involving both state and non-state actors.
Her husband has been stripped of his Kyrgyz citizenship and forced into exile, while she was convicted last year along with ten colleagues on charges of inciting and organizing mass riots—a case widely seen as politically motivated.
Tazhibek kyzy and another reporter were sentenced to six and five years in prison, while two others received probation. Seven journalists were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Press freedom groups have condemned the case as part of a broader crackdown on independent journalism in Kyrgyzstan. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Tazhibek kyzy’s final appeal on February 25.
In her letter, Tazhibek kyzy claims that another inmate—convicted murderer Lysenko—has been targeting her with threats and racial slurs.
“Lysenko called me ‘churka’ (a derogatory term used by Russian speakers to insult people of Asian descent). She won’t let me wash in the bathhouse. She threatens to poison and kill me. She discredits me in front of the other prisoners,” she wrote.
Despite the alarming allegations, the State Penitentiary Service has dismissed her claims, stating that “the convicted person from whom the threats allegedly come is held under strict conditions, separately from other convicts, including Tazhibek kyzy… At the moment, there is no threat to her safety.”
Temirov, however, is convinced that his wife is in real danger—and that authorities are deliberately ignoring the risks because of who she is.
“We hope that measures will be taken. Everything that happens to Makhabat in prison is entirely the responsibility of the authorities,” he told OCCRP.
Lysenko, the prisoner named in the letter, is serving a 25-year sentence for murder. Earlier this year, she herself claimed to have been tortured inside the colony where she and Tazhibek kyzy are being held.
This is not the first time Tazhibek kyzy has alleged abuse in prison. Last summer, while she was still in pretrial detention in another prison, her husband posted photos of bruises she allegedly received after being beaten by officers.
At the time, the Penitentiary Service denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the injuries were accidental and that she may have hit the bed or wall. Prison guards are not allowed to hit inmates, the institution said.
Later, following an internal investigation, the service alleged that Tazhibek kyzy had asked her cellmates to inflict the bruises in an attempt to stage evidence of beatings.
The prosecutor’s office refused to launch a criminal case, citing an “absence of legal violations.”
