Bishkek City Court, having reviewed the appeal on November 25, reduced the sentence for former Kloop operators Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Zhoomart Duulatov. Their five-year prison terms were replaced with three years of probation, and both were released in the courtroom, Kloop reported.
The sentence issued by Bishkek’s Pervomaisky District Court for two accountants from the outlet, who were tried in the same case, remained unchanged — three years of probation.
All four former Kloop employees were convicted in September of this year. The prosecution was based on videos published by Temirov Live, a channel run by investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, who was deported from Kyrgyzstan. Investigators claimed that the former Kloop staff participated in producing and distributing these materials, even though the operators and accountants said they had nothing to do with filming or publishing the videos. Experts found no direct calls for unrest in the footage. They also noted that the Temirov Live slogan — “Freedom is not given, freedom is won” — was unrelated to Kloop.
In court, the former Kloop employees pleaded not guilty and described pressure from investigators. Aleksandrov said he had been forced “to slander myself” in order to obtain house arrest, while Duulatov said he signed a confession out of fear of being imprisoned.
Nonetheless, the defendants were found guilty under Article 40 (“Perpetrator of a crime”) and Part 3 of Article 278 (“Calls for active disobedience to lawful demands of authorities and for mass unrest, as well as calls for violence against citizens”) of Kyrgyzstan’s Criminal Code.
Kloop’s newsroom has faced systematic pressure for several years. In the autumn of 2023, the outlet’s website was blocked; in February 2024, a court dissolved the project’s legal entity, the public foundation Kloop Media. In October 2025, Bishkek’s Oktyabrsky District Court declared Temirov Live, Kloop.kg, and Ait Ait Dese extremist.
