Watchdog

An Almaty administrative court has sentenced opposition journalist Ermurat Bapi to five days in jail, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Bapi is the director of the Dat-Iks-Media Company, which owns the weekly opposition newspaper "Taszharghan."

He was found guilty of not fulfilling a court decision to pay a large fine.

Last month, the court found "Taszharghan" guilty of libeling Kazakh parliamentary deputy Romin Madinov and ordered the newspaper to pay $200,000 to the deputy as compensation.

Bapi told RFE/RL that his company is not able to pay that amount to Madinov.

His lawyer, Altai Abdenov, said he and his client plan to challenge the court's verdict on Bapi's five-day imprisonment.

Bapi says all the accusations and charges are politically motivated.

Russian human rights activist Vitaly Ponomaryov was prevented from entering Kyrgyzstan on April 23, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Kyrgyz officials forced Ponomaryov to get off the Moscow-Bishkek train near the Chaldovar train station along the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border at 2 a.m. local time.

In February, Ponomaryov was stopped by Kyrgyz border guards at Bishkek's Manas Airport upon arriving from Moscow. He was forced to fly back to Moscow.

Kyrgyz border guards told RFE/RL that Ponomaryov has been officially barred from entering Kyrgyzstan until 2014.

Ponomaryov is a well-known human rights activist on Central Asian issues.