A Kyrgyz human rights activist says three opposition leaders are being abused and have had their lives threatened in jail, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
Kylym Shamy (Torch of the Century) NGO leader Aziza Abdyrasulova told RFE/RL that the lives of opposition politicians Erkin Bolokbaev, Sapar Argynbaev, and Uran Ryskulov are being threatened.
Abdyrasulova recently met with the politicians at a Bishkek detention center. She says the politicians' relatives were told that the politicians would be killed by criminals in jail unless a sum of $25,000 is paid for each man.
Bolokbaev, Argynbaev, and Ryskulov were detained in April in the wake of ethnic tensions in the Kyrgyz town of Petrovka after the alleged rape of a 4-year-old Russian girl.
The three were accused of organizing mass disorder. Human rights activists say the case is politically motivated.
Abdyrasulova told RFE/RL that rights activists sent letters to Kyrgyz authorities to intravene in the situation of the imprisoned politicians.