A Kyrgyz court on May 14 sentenced government critic and journalist Oljobai Shakir (aka Egemberdiev) to five years in prison on a charge of making calls online for mass unrest, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported.
Shakir rejected the charge, calling it ungrounded.
Shakir was arrested in August 2023, days after he criticized the government’s decision to hand four spa centers near Lake Issyk-Kul to Uzbekistan and called President Sadyr Japarov and the State Committee of National Security chief Kamchybek Tashiev to participate in public debates with him.
