CPJ Demands Results Of Probe Of Kyrgyz Journalist's Killing

The New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Kyrgyz authorities to make public the findings of their investigation into the 2007 murder of an independent journalist in Osh, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Alisher Saipov, the editor of the local Uzbek-language newspaper "Siyosat" (Politics), was shot dead by an unknown assailant on October 24, 2007.

His colleagues suspect that he might have been killed by agents of neighboring Uzbekistan since he wrote in Uzbek about the situation in that country.

However, Kyrgyz Interior Ministry spokesman Oljobay Kazybaev told RFE/RL those allegations are "untrue."

Kazybaev said the ministry has made "enormous efforts to investigate" Saipov's killing.

But he said the "opinions" about the alleged involvement of Kyrgyz or Uzbek security services are wrong because a suspect in Saipov's killing, Abdufarit Rasulov, has been arrested and his case will soon be brought to trial in Osh.