BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz authorities have brought new charges against investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, adding to previous allegations of illegal drugs possession, which he vehemently denies.
Bishkek city police said on April 20 that Temirov, who is a Russian citizen, used forged documents to obtain a Kyrgyz passport that he used to illegally exit and enter Kyrgyzstan in recent years.
Temirov called all the cases against him politically motivated.
Temirov was arrested along with noted Kyrgyz traditional bard singer Bolot Nazarov, known for performing renditions of Temirov's investigative reports as songs, in January for allegedly possessing illegal drugs, which they say were planted by police.
The two were freed amid rallies demanding their release but ordered not to leave the country until a probe against them was completed.
The arrests in January came after Temirov's YouTube channel, Temirov LIVE, launched an investigative report alleging corruption by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and the head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security, Kamchybek Tashiev.
The investigation looked into the possible involvement of relatives of Tashiev in the activities of Kyrgyzstan's state oil company.
Tashiev wrote on Facebook then that the information published about him by Temirov LIVE “was a complete lie."
Temirov last year was among 12 people recognized by the U.S. State Department as anticorruption champions.
