BISHKEK -- Preliminary hearings in the high-profile case of the director of the Next television channel in Kyrgyzstan, who is currently under arrest over the airing of a controversial report related to Russia's war in Ukraine, will be held on July 14.
The Next television channel director, Taalaibek Duishembiev, was arrested after a person interviewed in the report alleged the existence of an agreement between Bishkek and Moscow to send troops to assist Russian armed forces in the war.
Duishembiev's lawyer, Timur Sultanov, said on July 13, that investigators had passed the case to a court in Bishkek after completion of the investigation.
Duishembiev was arrested and charged with inciting ethnic hatred in early March.
The charge stemmed from comments by the exiled former chief of the Committee for National Security of neighboring Kazakhstan, Alnur Musaev, who said in the interview that Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had agreed to support Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by sending troops to help Russia.
Next officials have insisted the report was balanced, as it quoted Musaev directly while giving other people's views on the issue.
In late June, investigators additionally charged Duishembiev with inciting ethnic hatred, saying that his television channel distributed on Instagram an interview conducted by another Kyrgyz TV channel with Russian rights defender Valentina Chupik, in which he said that Russian authorities had pressured Kyrgyz men who recently obtained Russian citizenship into being recruited to fight in Ukraine.
There has been no evidence of Kyrgyz troops fighting in Ukraine since the invasion was launched on February 24.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry has rejected the report and called on local media outlets to base their reporting on the war in Ukraine solely on official government statements.
Domestic and international human rights organizations have demanded Duishembiev's release, saying that his arrest violates freedom of expression.