Watchdog

BERASTSE, Belarus -- Belarusian officials in the western city of Berastse have deported a second Polish woman working for a nongovernmental organization, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Belarusian border guards forced Kinga Ksionzek, who worked at the Polish-based NGO Fundacja Institutum Orientalium, to board a train bound for Poland without any official explanation, telling her only that she had to leave Belarus because her presence in the country was unwanted.

Earlier on November 16, another Fundacja Institutum Orientalium employee, Magdalena Kalinowska, left the eastern city of Mahileu in Belarus by car. Kalinowska had been in Mahileu since August, helping Belarusian entrepreneurs apply for training programs in Poland.

On November 11, the Migration Department in Mahileu summoned her and told her that she had been found guilty of violating the law on foreigners' residency. She was ordered to leave Belarus by November 16.

Belarusian migration officials said Kalinowska had been living in an apartment different from the one where she was officially registered, which they called a "serious violation."

The Fundacja Institutum Orientalium is a Polish NGO engaged in developing relations between the countries of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Asia.

About 4 percent of Belarus's 9.7 million people are ethnic Poles.

Read more in Belarusian here

BISHKEK -- Journalists have been barred from attending the trial of the Bishkek mayor's son for vehicular manslaughter, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Supreme Court press secretary Baktybek Rysaliev told RFE/RL that the defendant, Azamat Omurkulov, asked Judge Almaz Kalpaev not to admit journalists to the courtroom, as their presence constituted "psycho-social pressure on him."

Rysaliev said the judge granted that request on November 16.

The trial started in the northern town of Tokmok on November 4, but was postponed to November 15 because the defendant was reportedly in the hospital.

Omurkulov, who is the son of Bishkek Mayor Isa Omurkulov, was driving an SUV that collided with a car near the Dunlarov Bridge near Tokmok on the highway from Bishkek to the resort region Issyk-Kul in mid-August.

The driver of the car and two young passengers were killed in the crash. Azamat Omurkulov was also injured.

Isa Omurkulov told RFE/RL at the time that if his son was guilty, "he will be accountable in front of Almighty God and the law."

Isa Omurkulov is a member of President-elect Almazbek Atambaev's Social Democratic Party.

Investigators say Azamat Omurkulov, 29, caused the accident. He has been charged with vehicular manslaughter as a result of violating traffic regulations.

He was initially asked not to leave Bishkek while the investigation was under way. He was later placed under house arrest.

Read more in Kyrgyz here