• Text size  | | |
• Email this document
• Printable version

Death toll rises in 2010 Kyrgyz uprising

August 02, 2011

An injured protester is carried away during clashes between with police in Bishkek on April 7, 2010.

BISHKEK – The number of people killed in violent clashes between antigovernment demonstrators and security forces in Kyrgyzstan in April 2010 has been officially raised to 99, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports

The previous official total was 87 dead and 302 people wounded in the protests that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiev on April 7, 2010.

Lawyer Osunbek Jamansariev – who represents some of the victims in the ongoing trial of Bakiev and his relatives and former associates – told RFE/RL today that in recent months an additional 12 people wounded in the protests had died in the hospital.

Jamansariev said the most recent fatalities were Aziz Duishonaliev, 34, who died a month ago, and Temirbek Omurov, 48, who died on August 1.

Bakiev and 27 of his former associates are currently on trial for their role in the violence. They are accused of either having fired upon or giving the command to open fire on unarmed demonstrators gathered outside the presidential office building in Bishkek.

Many of the defendants are in detention or under house arrest, except for Bakiev and several others – most of them his close relatives – who are being tried in absentia.

Bakiev is currently living in Belarus at the invitation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The trial began in November, but was adjourned several times following scuffles in the courtroom in which some relatives of those killed threatened the defendants, their lawyers, and family members.

Link to original story on RFE/RL website

Topics: Opposition,