BISHKEK -- A Kyrgyz nationalist leader jailed for trying to overthrow the government has been released just four months into a four-year prison term, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Serice reports.
A lawyer for Urmat Baryktabasov, the leader of the Meken Tuu (Flag of the Fatherland) party, said today he was released from jail on August 26.
Baryktabasov was jailed in April for four years after he and 14 of his associates were found guilty of carrying weapons and illegally attempting to seize power.
He was arrested in August 2010 after he led a protest march to Bishkek from his hometown in northern Kyrgyzstan to voice a number of demands, including that he be named prime minister.
Baryktabasov's lawyer, Jamankul Junusov, said his client's jail term was shortened under a recent amnesty.
Baryktabasov had tried to run for president following the ouster of incumbent Askar Akaev in 2005, but the Central Election Commission refused to register him as a candidate, claiming he was a Kazakh citizen.
Baryktabasov was charged in absentia with trying to seize power in June 2005. He went into hiding and did not resurface until last year.
Read more in Kyrgyz here
A lawyer for Urmat Baryktabasov, the leader of the Meken Tuu (Flag of the Fatherland) party, said today he was released from jail on August 26.
Baryktabasov was jailed in April for four years after he and 14 of his associates were found guilty of carrying weapons and illegally attempting to seize power.
He was arrested in August 2010 after he led a protest march to Bishkek from his hometown in northern Kyrgyzstan to voice a number of demands, including that he be named prime minister.
Baryktabasov's lawyer, Jamankul Junusov, said his client's jail term was shortened under a recent amnesty.
Baryktabasov had tried to run for president following the ouster of incumbent Askar Akaev in 2005, but the Central Election Commission refused to register him as a candidate, claiming he was a Kazakh citizen.
Baryktabasov was charged in absentia with trying to seize power in June 2005. He went into hiding and did not resurface until last year.
Read more in Kyrgyz here