According to her statement, a law passed in 2006 guarantees detainees in SIZO the opportunity to make a 15-minute phone call to relatives once a week. However, in Karasartova's opinion, this right is not being upheld.
She emphasized that during her time in SIZO, she repeatedly appealed to the administration for permission to contact her family, but to no avail.
“As a human rights activist, I wrote for five months, but never received a response and was unable to exercise my right to make a call. After being released, I contacted the GPS, as SIZO is under their control. The deputy head of the GPS, Sarchayev, claimed in parliament that all detainees communicate with their relatives by phone. However, when I was in SIZO twice, I was not allowed to make a call. Now I am turning to the court to find out why this legal right is not being fulfilled,” Karasartova noted.
It is worth noting that in September 2025, the Sverdlovsk District Court found Rita Karasartova guilty under Articles 278 "Mass Rioting" and 327 "Public Calls for the Violent Seizure of Power" of the Criminal Code of Kyrgyzstan, imposing a fine of 50,000 soms and five years of probation supervision.
The defense appealed this decision in the city court; however, to date, the appellate panel has upheld the sentence, meaning that the penalties and conditions of probation supervision remain in effect.
