Director of the Central Asian program of Memorial human rights center Vitaly Ponomarev was detained while passing border control at Manas International Airport. The human rights movement Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan confirmed the information to 24.kg news agency.
According to the organization, the entry ban was imposed on Vitaly Ponomarev in 2017 and extended by the decision of the Bishkek City Court in February 2020.
«Since it has not yet been lifted, the human rights activist was detained,» Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan explained.
Vitaly Ponomarev was for the first time declared persona non grata and deported from Kyrgyzstan in February 2009. Right after the 2010 revolution, the then president Roza Otunbayeva signed decrees to lift the previously imposed entry bans on Ponomarev and his colleagues from other human rights organizations.
