Kyrgyzstan: defender arrested for protesting the country's flag change
Event- Country
- Kyrgyzstan
- Initial Date
- Dec 7, 2023
- Event Description
Kyrgyz activist Aftandil Jorobekov, who openly protested against amending Kyrgyzstan's national flag, has been detained after being charged with calling for mass disorder and disobeying the authorities' legal requirements, his lawyer told RFE/RL late on December 7. The bill that was approved by lawmakers in its first reading last week says that the wavy yellow sunrays on a red field on the current flag give the impression of a sunflower. The Kyrgyz word for sunflower is kunkarama, which also has a second meaning -- "dependent." The bill would allow the "straightening" of the sunrays to make it look more like a sun.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Right to liberty and security
- Right to Protest
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 42.89172535661395
Longitude: 74.56543182411986
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 7 December 2023, Aftandil Jorobekov, pro-democracy defender, was detained for protesting the change of the country's flag by a court in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.