Prague, 21 January 1997 (RFE/RL) - The newly-founded movement For Deliverance From Poverty in Kyrgyzstan has filed documentation with the country's justice ministry to officially register as an opposition bloc.
Our correspondent reports today that the paperwork was submitted yesterday in the capital Bishkek. He aid the alliance could gain legal status within two months.
Several members of the bloc were detained by Kyrgyz authorities last December when the bloc held its founding congress in Bishkek. One of the detainees, the leader of the Ashar movement, Joumagazy Usupov, was sentenced to fifteen days in jail by a district court in Bishkek on December 25.
A co-chairman of the movement, Topchubek Turgunaliev, was sentenced to a ten-year prison term earlier this month. He was accused of embezzlement.