Sapar Akunbekov

Affiliated media: YouTube channel Temirov Live, YouTube channel ARCHA MEDIA , Investigative journalist

Incident date: March 12, 2024

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: 24.kg

Location: Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek

Additional information:

The Pervomaysky District Court of Bishkek released journalist Sapar Akunbekov under house arrest. On January 16, Sapar was detained by the police officers after a search in the office of Temirov Live together with other investigative journalists. The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that following the results of a «forensic linguistic examination» of the content on the social media pages of Temirov Live and Ayt Ayt Dese, on December 30, 2023, a criminal case was opened under Article 278 (calls for mass riots) of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. All the detained journalists were given a preventive measure in the form of detention for two months, until March 13. For almost two weeks, they were kept in a temporary detention centre and then transferred to a pre-trial detention centre.