BISHKEK -- A court in Kyrgyzstan has rejected an appeal filed by the director of Next TV to end his pretrial detention over a news report about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Bishkek City Court ruled on March 24 that a lower court's decision to hold Taalai Duishembiev in pretrial detention until at least May 3 cannot be changed.
Duishembiev was detained on March 3 over the airing of a controversial report in which an interviewee alleged the existence of an agreement between Bishkek and Moscow to send Kyrgyz troops to Ukraine to assist the Russian armed forces in their invasion.
The State Committee for National Security has said it launched the probe against the TV channel for inciting interethnic hatred.
The report in question quoted the exiled former chief of the Committee for National Security (KNB) of neighboring Kazakhstan, Alnur Musaev, as saying that Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had agreed to support Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by sending troops to help Russia.
There has been no evidence of Tajik or Kyrgyz troops fighting in Ukraine since the unprovoked invasion was launched by Moscow.
However, some reports have said there were ethnic Tajik and Kyrgyz who hold Russian citizenship among the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
Next TV's owner, Ravshan Jeenbekov, has rejected the charge, insisting that the report quoted Musaev directly while balancing his statements with other people's views on the issue as well.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry has rejected the report and has called on local media outlets to base their reporting on the ongoing war in Ukraine solely on official government statements.