Two Kyrgyz Security Officers Arrested In Connection With Journalist's Murder

Gennady Pavlyuk died after being thrown from a building in 2009.

BISHKEK -- Two officers of Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security have been arrested in connection with the murder of a journalist.

Representatives of the Kyrgyz prosecutor-general told RFE/RL on April 7 that the men, whose names were not revealed, were arrested on April 5 after investigators in neighboring Kazakhstan had named them as suspects.

Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk, who was of Russian origin, died several days after being thrown from a building in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty in December 2009.

His arms and legs had been bound.

His relatives and colleagues allege that the murder was politically motivated because Pavlyuk had joined the opposition movement against former President Kurmanbek Bakiev and his government.

A former Kyrgyz security service officer and two Kazakh citizens were found guilty of involvement into Pavlyuk's murder and handed prison sentences in 2011.