charges against him and his co-defendants to be politically motivated. Amnesty International considers Askarov a prisoner of conscience and is currently campaigning for his immediate release and an investigation into his allegations of torture by law enforcement. On May 18, 2011, the Kadamjay Regional Court sentenced two young men, Iskandar Kambarov (18 years old) and Jonibek Nosirov (22 years old) to seven years in prison on the charge of possessing two DVDs of an extremist Islamic organization. The two men are not Islamic, but Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Norwegian human rights organization Forum 18 claims that the DVDs were planted as false evidence during a police raid. Their sentenced got overturned but it is unclear how the court case has developed further. A more recent development took place in December 2017 with a negotiation between the EU and Kyrgyzstan. The purpose of the negotiation was to increase cooperation and agree upon a mutual understanding of countering terrorism. The discussion was centred around the respect for human rights as the EU Parliament called for political activist Azimjon Askarov to be released from his imprisonment. Recently in 2019, during Soronbai Jeenbekov's presidency still no agreement was made on media freedom in Kyrgyzstan. Azimjon Askarov, a human right activists, still remains in prison. In late July, human rights defender Azimzhan Askarov died in prison in Kyrgyzstan. He was 69 years old and was serving life imprisonment. Kyrgyz authorities ignored the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruling to release Askarov, as he was arbitrarily detained, tortured, and denied a fair trial. In May 2020, he made a final appeal, and Kyrgyz Supreme Court sustained his sentence. In 2021 the caretaker parliament passed legislation that would punish groups that cause "political enmity" a move that according to Human Rights Watch would undermine freedom of expression and association. Historical situation The following chart shows Kyrgyzstan’s ratings since 1991 in the Freedom in the World reports, published annually by Freedom House. A rating of 1 is "free"; 7, "not free". See also Human trafficking in Kyrgyzstan Internet censorship and surveillance in Kyrgyzstan LGBT rights in Kyrgyzstan Religion in Kyrgyzstan Agriculture in Kyrgyzstan Notes 1.Note that the "Year" signifies the "Year covered". Therefore the information for the year marked 2008 is from the report published in 2009, and so on. 2.As of January 1. References External links (Russian)Human rights in Kyrgyzstan - Jan. 30, 2010 (Human Rights in Central