Temirlan Ormukov. Source: Youtube. 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 recognised as having a disability, was kept in a tiny, three-metre-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 satirises 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.
Several members of the Kyrgyz Society for the Deaf and Blind stated publicly in September 2016 that they had organised public demonstrations at Bekeshev’s request in support of removing Kalyk Mambetakunov, head of the society. According to them, Bekeshev, who had promised to allocate several society members apartments, reneged on his promise as soon as Mambetakunov was removed. Bekeshev, who is blind, later stated that these accusations were based on selective interpretations, and members of the society presented no evidence in support of their case.
