BISHKEK -- Adakhan Madumarov, a Kyrgyz lawmaker and the leader of opposition Butun (United) Kyrgyzstan party, says a probe has been launched against him into allegations that he committed treason over a real estate deal signed 12 years ago.
Madumarov told RFE/RL on February 10 that the case against him was "100 percent politically motivated." He did not elaborate.
Earlier in the day, Kyrgyz lawmakers said they had formed a commission to look into a motion by the Prosecutor-General's Office to start a probe against Madumarov regarding a land-rental agreement with Tajikistan in the volatile border region between the two Central Asian nations in 2009.
Madumarov has been summoned to the Prosecutor-General's Office seven times in recent weeks, where he was questioned regarding the agreement he signed to rent 5 hectares of land located along the disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
President Sadyr Japarov said in an interview with a newspaper in Bishkek last month that Tajikistan now uses the 2009 agreement to justify its stance that the disputed land in the area belongs to Tajikistan.
Madumarov has insisted that the agreement he signed has no judicial force.
Almost half of the 970-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border has yet to be demarcated, leading to repeated tensions since the two countries gained independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union three decades ago.
Many border areas in Central Asia have been disputed since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
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Along The Kyrgyz-Tajik Border, Residents Assess The Damage From Deadly Border Clashes
The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan meet.
Last month, border clashes between the two neighbors' security forces left at least two people dead and many more wounded.
In April last year, clashes that involved military personnel along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border left dozens of people dead on both sides.