Security services in Kyrgyzstan said Friday that they had arrested three politicians including a former minister on charges of plotting a coup, ahead of an anti-government rally later this month. Three members of a group called the People's Parliament movement were arrested late Thursday on coup charges in the Central Asian country's capital Bishkek, a spokesman for the GKNB security service told AFP.
"Three leaders of the so-called People's Parliament have been arrested in Bishkek," the spokesman said by telephone. "They stand accused of preparing a violent seizure of power in the country and destabilisation of the political situation in the country," he said. The Kyrgyz security services arrested the leader of the People's Parliament Bekbolot Talgarbekov, a former agriculture minister, along with former judge Marat Sultanov and a politician who has previously run for president, Torobay Kolubayev.