A Kyrgyz court jailed a prominent opposition politician on corruption charges on Monday, a move his supporters said was part of a politically motivated crackdown by President Almazbek Atambayev.
BISHKEK: A Kyrgyz court jailed a prominent opposition politician on corruption charges on Monday, a move his supporters said was part of a politically motivated crackdown by President Almazbek Atambayev.
The court ordered Omurbek Tekebayev to be detained for two months pending trial, a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Central Asian former Soviet republic, which hosts a Russian airbase.
Kyrgyzstan holds presidential elections on Nov. 19 in which Atambayev is barred from running. Tekebayev, whose supporters plan to nominate him as a candidate, is one of the president’s most outspoken critics.
The state security service detained 58-year-old Tekebayev, who leads the Ata Meken (Fatherland) party’s parliamentary faction, on Sunday after the prosecutor general’s office alleged he took a US$1 million bribe from a Russian businessman in 2010.
