Kyrgyz Party To Appeal Leader's Prison Sentence

(RFE/RL) BISHKEK, August 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Kyrgyzstan's Green Party said today it will appeal a decision by a Bishkek district court to sentence the party's leader to 10 days in prison, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Erkin Bulekbaev, who is also a television journalist, was arrested August 10 while he was filming a police operation at the Issykul Investbank building in Bishkek.

The opposition says the sentence is politically motivated.

The bank is at the center of a controversy over its leadership.

The bank’s director, opposition leader Bolot Baikojoev of the People's Will party, accuses the government of trying to remove him.

Turmoil In Kyrgyzstan

Opposition protests in Bishkek on April 11 (TASS)

TAKING TO THE STREETS. Edil Baisalov, president of the largest grassroots network in Kyrgyzstan, discussed the political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan at an RFE/RL briefing in Washington. He addressed the question of whether the unrest is a healthy democratic process or a bid to derail the country's fragile democratic transition.