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A Kyrgyz activist has been sentenced to prison for Facebook posts that authorities said "incited hatred," and called for the "violent seizure of power." She says the Facebook profile was fake, and she never wrote the messages.
Lawyers for Kanykei Aranova argued that she had been framed, but a court in Kyrgyzstan’s capital of Bishkek sentenced her to three and a half years in prison on June 28. Family members are now caring for her 11-year old daughter.
The verdict came amidst a crackdown on journalists and activists, which began after Sadyr Japarov became president of the Central Asian nation in 2021. In the worldwide press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, Kyrgyzstan last year fell 50 spots to 122 out of 180 countries.
Among the targets of the crackdown were 11 journalists with OCCRP’s Kyrgyz reporting partner, Temirov Live, who were arrested earlier this year on similar charges as Aranova. They have denied accusations of “inciting mass unrest,” and a defense lawyer said last month that the case is politically motivated.
The case against Aranova was primarily based on posts on a Facebook account that has since been taken offline. Before it disappeared, journalists with OCCRP and Temirov Live saved screenshots showing that the profile was at first under the name Adina Juma.
At some point, the Facebook profile changed to show Aranova’s name. Then, on January 13, a number of existing posts were edited in ways that authorities could interpret as incriminating.
“I was judged without evidence,” she said in an April interview. “Someone using my name, Kanykei Aranova, opened a fake profile on Facebook and wrote various posts.”
Less than three weeks after the offensive messages were posted to Facebook, Aranova was arrested in Moscow and extradited to her home country of Kyrgyzstan.
Edited Posts
When she first discovered the offensive messages on the Facebook account in her name, Aranova contacted the Kyrgyz lawyer Tologon Keldibaev.
“She asked for advice on how to stop it,” Keldibaev said in an interview. “I told her that Facebook would block the profile if she reported about that fake account. I also advised her to report it to the State Committee of National Security (GKNB)”
In fact, the GKNB was aware of the messages –– and the agency used it to build a case against her, according to court documents provided to reporters. The GKNB said the messages on the Facebook page in Aranova’s name included “systematic calls for a violent seizure of power and inciting inter-regional hatred.”
One of the doctored posts called Japarov a “tribalist,” and said he favors people from his northern region of Issyk-Kul, who have “filled all positions everywhere.”
Another post mentioned opposition politician Adakhan Madumarov, saying he would “fuck up Sadyr Japarov and become president.” A different post said that “power must be seized openly, and only Madumarov is worthy of being a ruler.”
Yet another post excoriated Doolot Sydykov, who is a “manaschy,” a scholar of an ancient epic poem about a hero called Manas, which is popular throughout Central Asia. Sydykov had been critical of the government, and left Kyrgyzstan in 2022. When he returned in January, he met with Kamchybek Tashiev, who heads the GKNB and is close to Japarov.
The Facebook post read: “The traitor Manaschy Doolot is licking Tashiev’s ass.”
Facebook did not respond to questions from reporters about the profile with Aranova’s name, which contained edited posts that were used to convict her.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov (left) holds a meeting with Kamchybek Tashiev, the head of the State Committee on National Security. (Photo: President.kg)
‘Linguistic Examination’
Documents from Aranova’s case show that on January 22 –– just nine days after edits were made to the Facebook page to create offensive messages –– the GKNB asked the Ministry of Justice to analyze the posts.
The ministry then requested the National Academy of Sciences, a government institution, to carry out a “scientific-political examination.” That analysis was completed in one day, according to court documents.
The analysis said the Facebook posts were “aimed at inciting interregional hostility” and that they were “aimed at calling for disobedience to the authorities and/or its overthrow.”
One former researcher at the National Academy of Sciences has called out his former employer for allegedly acting as a tool of the GKNB.
In a March 8 Facebook post, Zhoomart Karabaev said the GKNB uses the institution to “conduct false political examinations.” In an April 18 post, he pointed to one expert in particular, named Azamat Zhanyshbek uulu.
Court records show that Zhanyshbek was the expert who examined the Facebook posts made in Aranova’s name. Zhanyshbek declined to comment, and directed questions to the National Academy of Sciences, which did not respond before publication.
Karabaev said in his April 18 post that he had been pressured by the GKNB to provide analysis in political cases, and that four other researchers had left their jobs for the same reason.
Karabaev himself is now in pre-trial detention after being charged on July 2 for “inciting mass riots” in relation to his social media activities.
In addition to the National Academy of Sciences’ analysis of the Facebook posts in Aranova’s name, Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Justice supplied a “forensic linguistic” analysis, according to court documents. Those experts determined that the messages were “aimed at replacing the current government,” and “creating interregional tensions.”
Backsliding on Democracy
Aranova’s political activism has landed her in trouble with Kyrgyz authorities before.
In October 2022, she was sentenced to 30 hours of community service, according to a report by Kloop, OCCRP’s member center in Kyrgyzstan, which is also under attack from the government.
Aranova had uploaded a video of herself speaking about the controversial transfer of the Kempir-Abad reservoir to neighboring Uzbekistan.
The two governments had settled a border dispute with Kyrgyzstan ceding the reservoir to Uzbekistan in exchange for 19,000 hectares of land. The deal sparked protests in Kyrgyzstan, where authorities arrested more than 20 people and charged them with “attempting to violently overthrow the government.”
Most of the protestors, who were angry about the lack of public consultation, were acquitted last month after a lengthy legal process.
In her video, Aranova criticized Tashiev, the GKNB head, who announced the border agreement. She accused him of excluding people from meetings about the negotiations, and refusing to let journalists film the proceedings. Aranova was reportedly charged with “slander and ridicule of government officials.”
While Kyrgyzstan previously had a relatively open political and media scene, observers have noted the Central Asian country’s steps backward under Japarov.
Leila Nazgül Seiitbek, a prominent Kyrgyz lawyer and human rights activist, said it is now common for authorities to manufacture evidence to silence journalists and activists.
Seiitbek, who is in exile in Vienna, said she was not surprised that the court had jailed Aranova based on Facebook posts from a fake profile. She called the verdict “excessive, illegal and politically motivated.”
“The authorities are ready to persecute any citizen, even the most insignificant, who dares to express criticisms, even constructive ones,” Seiitbek said.