BISHKEK -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says it will provide the family of murdered Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk with an independent lawyer, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
The OSCE decision was made after Pavlyuk's wife and Tolekan Ismailova, the head of the Kyrgyz rights organization Citizens Against Corruption, called on the OSCE and the Russian Embassy in Bishkek to help conduct an independent investigation into Pavlyuk's death.
Pavlyuk, 51, died in a hospital on December 22, six days after he was thrown from a high building in Almaty with his hands and feet bound.
Kazakh media quoted Kazakh police sources over the weekend as saying there were indications that Kyrgyz secret service officers may have been involved in Pavlyuk's murder.
But Kyrgyz secret service officials accused the Kazakh media of disseminating false information.
Pavlyuk, an ethnic Russian, was the founder of the "White Steamer" newspaper and website and had worked for the newspaper "Vecherny Bishkek" (Evening Bishkek) and the Russian weekly "Argumenty i fakty."