Watchdog

Police have said Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk's hands and feet were bound when he was found unconscious after apparently being thrown from the window of a sixth-floor apartment, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Almaty City Interior Ministry spokesman Yevgeny Lysenko told RFE/RL that Pavlyuk was found in very grave condition on December 16 and he had masking tape around his hands and feet.

He is currently in a coma in an Almaty hospital under armed guard. Doctors have said his condition is very grave.

Lysenko said Pavlyuk arrived to Almaty from Bishkek on December 16 and was staying at the Kazakhstan Hotel.

Omurbek Tekebaev, the leader of the Kyrgyz opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party, told RFE/RL that Pavlyuk was in the party's offices in Bishkek to discuss details of a joint media project before leaving for Almaty.

Pavlyuk is a prominent Kyrgyz journalist of Russian origin. He used to work for the "Vecherny Bishkek" ("Evening Bishkek") newspaper and Russia's weekly "Argumenty i Fakty."

He is also the founder of the "White Steamer" newspaper and website.

Pavlyuk is the third ethnic Russian journalist from Kyrgyzstan to have been attacked or seriously injured in the past two weeks.

An Iranian cleric, Hojatoleslam Rahimian, called today for the leaders of Iran’s opposition Green Movement to be executed.

Rahimian reportedly made the call at a pro-government rally that was held after Tehran’s Friday Prayers to condemn the alleged insulting of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Khomeini.

Rahimian is quoted as saying that the "seditionists" should be executed in the fiercest manner. Rahimian is introduced as the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Martyrs foundation.

“Khabaronline” news website reports that demonstrators expressed support for his comments by shouting, "The leaders of the Green sedition must be executed," and, "Musavi, Karrubi, this is the last [warning]."

Hard-liners have accused opposition demonstrators of tearing down a picture of Khomeini during a student rally on December 7. But members of the opposition say the incident was staged to discredit the opposition and put it under more pressure.

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi have called the incident "suspicious." They have appplied for a permit to hold their own rally.

-- Golnaz Esfandiari