Kyrgyz authorities issued arrest warrants for 10 independent journalists and searched their homes on Tuesday. According to OCCRP, an international organization that protects the rights of investigative journalists, they are now detained for 48 hours before a court decides to release them or extend their detention.

On Tuesday morning, police searched the apartments of ten employees and former employees of the independent newsroom Temirov Live in Kyrgyzstan, editor-in-chief Bolot Temirov told OCCRP.

Temirov is now living in exile after being deported from the country in 2022.

The searches were conducted as part of an investigation into alleged calls for mass riots at various addresses in the country’s capital, editor-in-chief Temirov wrote on his Facebook page.

The police searched the homes of former Temirov Live journalists and other employees who are currently or have previously been associated with Temirov Live.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyrgyzstan confirmed that a criminal case was opened at the end of December and the examination established that “some publications contained calls for mass riots.”

“A total of 10 people were detained and interrogated, and their homes were searched. The authorities made a spectacle out of it, as if we were terrorists again. The same thing happened two years ago. Now the offices are being searched, lawyers are not being allowed in,” Temirov said in an interview with OCCRP.

In recent years, Kyrgyz police and special services have searched the offices and apartments of several independent journalists. In 2022, police searched Temirov Live’s newsroom, where they said they found a small bag of hashish among the journalist’s belongings, OCCRP said.