Page 76 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine December 2023

76 Opinion bne December 2023
Investigative journalist Bolot Temirov was finally silenced when authorities put him on a plane to Russia. / Temirov LIVE, YouTube
that Temirov said police planted on him. Temirov was tested for narcotics. The tests came back negative, but he was still arrested for narcotics possession and held in custody.
Temirov Live continued to operate. On April 18, the programme reported on a company of Tashiyev’s son, Taimuras, winning several state tenders.
On April 19, three new charges were brought against Temirov – forging documents, using a fake passport and illegally crossing the state border, charges Temirov also denied.
In September 2022, a court found Temirov not guilty of possession of drugs and of illegally crossing the state border, but it convicted him of using forged documents to obtain
a Kyrgyz passport in 2008. He was not sentenced because the statute of limitations had expired.
Temirov filed an appeal against the conviction. The prosecutor filed an appeal against all the court decisions.
A court heard both appeals on November 23, 2022, upholding the original decisions, but ordering Temirov to be deported from Kyrgyzstan since his Kyrgyz citizenship documents were forged.
Police escorted Temirov from the courtroom to the airport and put him on a plane for Russia.
"Panic-inducing" Kloop
Kloop Media is one of the leading independent media outlets in Kyrgyzstan.
www.bne.eu
Kloop has worked with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to shed light on the shady business world in Kyrgyzstan. This work has included a detailed report on the vast assets of a former deputy Customs Service chief, and reputed mafia kingpin, Raimbek Matraimov.
Matraimov is suspected of having played a role in catapulting Sadyr Japarov from prisoner to president.
“Kloop received notice that the Bishkek prosecutor’s office had filed an application with the court to close it down because Kloop Media’s charter allegedly did not list media activity as part of its operations”
On August 22, Kloop reported on the involvement of GKNB chief Tashiyev’s sons, and also associates of Japarov, in a project to open a Barcelona football academy built on state land in the southern city of Jalal-Abad.
On August 28, Kloop received notice that the Bishkek prosecutor’s office had filed an application with the court to close it down because Kloop Media’s charter allegedly did not list media activity as part of its operations.