Poet Temirlan Ormukov, who pens satirical poetry critical of the Kyrgyz authorities, cut his stomach open on 29 March with a razor in protest against being imprisoned at an Interior Ministry building. Ormukov was treated by emergency services, and on 5 April was placed in investigative detention in Bishkek. Ormukov, who is blind and is recognized as having a disability, was kept in a tiny, three-meter-square ward. Handcuffs dangled from the hospital bed as two police officers kept watch.
Ormukov believes that the authorities want to imprison him for publishing his poetry, which satirizes high-ranking public officials, on Facebook. This criminal prosecution came via Dastan Bekeshev, a parliamentary deputy with the ruling Social Democrat party. According to Ormukov, Bekeshev wants vengeance after the poet requested a criminal case against him. The poet, a coordinator at the civic fund of blind and deaf persons, requested that the Kyrgyz General Prosecutor’s Office investigate if Bekeshev was financing protests by blind persons in 2016.
