Country: Kyrgyzstan

Field of activity: artist, journalist

I am an artist, I graduated from the famous art school named after P. Benkov in Tashkent in 1977. Until 1990 I worked as an artist-designer, simultaneously participating with his paintings at various exhibitions. Since 1990 I was engaged in human rights activities, founded the human rights organization «Vozduh», actively published critical articles about human rights in the local publication. In 2010 I sentenced to life imprisonment on a fabricated case and serve a sentence in a penal colony in Bishkek. In 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee adopted a decision and demanded that Kyrgyzstan immediately release me and pay compensation. The country’s authorities are still not fulfilling these requirements. In 2012, my colleagues held an exhibition of my paintings in Bishkek. I was awarded the US State Department’s Human Rights Award, the Homo Homini Award (Czech Republic) and the International Center for the Defense of Journalists award (New York, USA).