Uzbek journalist Yelena Bondar

Last updated (GMT/UTC): 02.09.2011 15:43

BISHKEK — Dozens of activists picketed the Uzbek Embassy in Bishkek today in support of Uzbek journalist Yelena Bondar, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.One of the organizers of the picket, Ulugbek Babakulov, told RFE/RL that Bondar was arrested at Tashkent airport on August 22 on her return from Bishkek, where she had attended journalism seminars organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

The protesters signed a petition addressed to Uzbekistan’s Prosecutor-General Rashidjon Kadyrov urging him personally to look into Bondar’s case.

Bondar was briefly detained and fined for bringing in undeclared goods that included CDs and memory sticks, which were confiscated and are now being analyzed by the state Information and Communications Agency.

No Uzbek Embassy official met with the protesters.

Kadyrov said the petition will therefore be sent to the Uzbek authorities by regular mail and via the Internet.

Read more in Kyrgyz here

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan_journalist_arrest/24315808.html