Rita Karasartova after her release, September 18, 2025. Photo: Tandyr Media video still
The Sverdlovsk District Court of Bishkek has sentenced human rights activist Rita Karasartova to five years of probation and fined her 50,000 soms ($572), Tandyr Media reported.
The ruling was announced on September 18. The court found Karasartova guilty of incitement to mass unrest and calls for the violent seizure of power under Articles 278 and 327 of the Criminal Code of Kyrgyzstan. Prosecutors had earlier demanded a ten-year prison term.
During the probationary period, Karasartova will remain under the supervision of law enforcement authorities.
▪️ Probation is applied as an alternative to imprisonment and entails regular monitoring by probation officers. Convicts are required to report periodically, cannot change residence without notification, and must comply with court-imposed restrictions. Violating probation rules may result in the penalty being replaced with imprisonment.
Karasartova’s lawyer, Zhanysh Barakov, said the defense disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal. He noted that the court convicted the activist under articles on mass unrest and violent seizure of power, yet all defense motions — including summoning the experts who prepared the linguistic and psychological reports — were rejected.
Barakov criticized the weakness of the evidence, stating that the case materials consisted only of screenshots of his client’s comments. “There are no calls for mass unrest or violent seizure of power. As a human rights defender, she merely published a letter by Tilekmat Kurenov to his family,” he said.
He also stressed that the case contained no proof of Karasartova’s connection to Kurenov. According to him, the activist was never summoned to court, not listed among witnesses, and was not questioned. “The only link between him and Rita is the letter she posted on her Facebook page,” the lawyer said (Facebook is banned in Russia; its parent company Meta is designated there as extremist).
▶️ Karasartova had been held in custody since April 2025 following her arrest in Bishkek. Her case was heard behind closed doors because the materials were classified. Three other defendants are also implicated, but their names have not been disclosed.
Karasartova initially linked her arrest to the social media publication of Kurenov’s letter, but later noted that his name does not appear in the investigative materials. In a July letter from pretrial detention, she said the prosecution was connected to her opposition views.
Several international and local human rights groups criticized Karasartova’s arrest, calling for the charges against her to be dropped.
Kurenov was also detained in April this year and extradited to Bishkek from the UAE. According to the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan (GKNB), while abroad he regularly published provocative posts and video messages on social media calling for mass unrest and an attempted violent seizure of power.
Rita Karasartova is known for her work defending women’s rights and fighting corruption. She was among the defendants in the so-called “Kempir-Abad case,” who opposed handing over the Kempir-Abad (Andijan) Reservoir to Uzbekistan. Most of them were arrested on October 23, 2022, on charges of “preparing to organize mass unrest.” In April 2024, the court acquitted all defendants in that case.
