A prosecutor asked a Bishkek court on May 7 to sentence government critic and journalist Oljobai Shakir (aka Egemberdiev) to seven years in prison on a charge of online calls for mass unrest. Days before his arrest in August last year, Shakir criticized the government’s decision to hand four spa centers near Lake Issyk-Kul to Uzbekistan and called President Sadyr Japarov and the State Committee of National Security chief Kamchybek Tashiev to participate in public debates with him. Shakir rejects the charge, calling it ungrounded. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.
