BISHKEK -- Representatives of the Kyrgyz Ombudsman's Institute have confirmed that guards physically attacked journalist Makhabat Tajibek-kyzy and two of her cellmates in a detention center in the capital.
Representatives of the ombudsman told RFE/RL over the weekend that they visited Tajibek-kyzy in the detention center on April 6 and confirmed bruises on her hands, face, and under her left arm outlined in a complaint she filed that day.
Prosecutors subsequently said they had launched a preliminary investigation into Tajibek-kyzy's complaint.
Tajibek-kyzy is the wife of prominent investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, the founder of the Temirov Live investigative group, who was deported to Moscow in November 2022 after a court ruled that he illegally obtained Kyrgyz citizenship, which he denies.
Tajibek-kyzy and seven current and former reporters of Temirov Live were sent to pretrial detention in January on charges of "calling for mass riots," which the journalists and rights groups have rejected as politically motivated.
In a statement issued on April 7, Temirov linked the guards' attack on his wife to his recent investigative reports about President Sadyr Japarov's trip to Italy with his family and a fact-checking analysis of a public statement by the chief of the State Committee for National Security (UKMK), Kamchybek Tashiev, denying his involvement in corrupt activities.
"I consider it a warning sent to me through the beating of my wife in custody," Temirov said.
Kyrgyz-based and international human rights groups have urged the government to immediately release the Temirov Live journalists and drop all charges against them.
Kyrgyzstan's media and civil society have traditionally been the most vibrant in Central Asia. But that has changed amid a deepening government crackdown.
Last week, Japarov signed into law a controversial bill that allows the authorities to register organizations as "foreign representatives," which critics say mirrors a repressive Russian law on "foreign agents" that Moscow uses to muzzle free press and NGOs.