Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court on October 8 changed the five-year prison term handed to vocal government critic and journalist Oljobai Shakir (aka Egemberdiev) with three years of parole-like probation. Shakir, who was sentenced in May on a charge of making online calls for mass unrest, was immediately released from a detention center in Bishkek. Shakir was arrested in August 2023 after he criticized the government's decision to hand four spa centers near Lake Issyk-Kul to Uzbekistan and called on President Sadyr Japarov and State Committee of National Security chief Kamchybek Tashiev to participate in public debates with him. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.
Vocal Kyrgyz Government Critic Released From Jail After Sentence Changed
Oljobai Shakir speaks ro RFE/RL outside the detention center in Bishkek on October 8.