Religious extremists should be given harsher punishment, the Kyrgyz prosecutor-general, Chubak Abyshkayev, said.
In an interview to the government newspaper Kyrgyz Tuusu on 1 May he said: "Today the Hezb-e Tahrir radical religious extremist movement is exerting strong influence on population centres in the south of our republic and is recruiting mostly Kyrgyz people. The movement is openly propagating the idea of Islamization of society and is urging the changing of the present constitutional system and the setting up of an Islamic state, a caliphate, in the Fergana valley."
He said that despite the suspension of the Hezb-e Tahrir party's activities and the arrest of their main activists in the republic, the fight against religious extremism had not produced the expected results because the Kyrgyz law against religious extremism was not strict enough.
"Unfortunately, the fight against religious activists is not producing the expected results because light penalties are given to those propagating religious extremist views," Abyshkayev said.
Abyshkayev proposed giving religious activists stricter punishment.
"Article 299 of the Kyrgyz Criminal Code (inciting ethnic, racial or religious enmity) specifies just a fine and from six months to 5 years' imprisonment. Therefore, the prosecutor-general of the Kyrgyz Republic has proposed amending clauses of the Criminal Code on punishment for crimes related to religious extremism. I hope we will achieve results in the fight against today's religious extremism by taking these measures," Abyshkayev said.
He also said that the state authorities and the public should make joint efforts to help the special services and the power-wielding agencies in fighting religious extremism and terrorism.
"In 2000 alone, the Kyrgyz law-enforcement agencies uncovered 40 religious attempts by Islamic activists among people and 49 people were punished for their unlawful acts. All in all 63 people were convicted of committing such crimes in the republic's southern Osh and Dzhalal-Abad Regions last year," the prosecutor said.
BBC