BISHKEK -- Prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison sentence for traditional Kyrgyz bard singer Bolot Nazarov for performing songs criticizing the Central Asian state's authorities.
Nazarov's lawyer, Bakyt Avtandil, told RFE/RL on January 23 that the prosecutor's request was announced at the trial four days earlier.
Nazarov is charged with the alleged possession of illegal drugs and stealing a horse, which he and his supporters reject as a politically motivated move against him over his professional activities.
Nazarov was initially arrested a year ago along with well-known investigative journalist Bolot Temirov for drug possession. Following an outcry by the two men's supporters, they were transferred to house arrest.
In November, police accused Nazarov of stealing a horse from a farmer and placed him back in pretrial detention.
Nazarov denies the new charge as well, saying that the owner had given him the horse as an award for winning a bards' competition.
After he was officially charged with stealing the horse, Nazarov returned it to the farmer. In December, the plaintiff asked the court to drop the charge against Nazarov, saying he has no claims against him.
But the judge refused to drop the charges.
Following the arrest with Nazarov, Temirov was deported to Russia in November after a Bishkek court found him guilty of illegally obtaining a Kyrgyz passport.
Temirov, who has reported extensively about corruption among government officials in Kyrgyzstan, had both Kyrgyz and Russian citizenship. He has insisted that the court's decision was politically motivated, saying all his documents, including his Kyrgyz passport, had been legally and properly obtained.
The court's decision to deport Temirov has been condemned by a UN rights envoy, press-freedom defenders, and Western governments.