Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk died this morning in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Almaty, Kazakhstan from serious injuries sustained when he was thrown from the window of a sixth-floor apartment in a residential building in Almaty, media reports said.

Pavlyuk was found unconscious with duct tape around his feet and hands and remained in a coma until his death on 22 December.

“There must be an immediate, thorough and transparent investigation,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “This was a particularly brutal and callous murder, and I would encourage the international community not only to vocally condemn Pavyluk’s murder and to pressure the authorities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to make sure that this case does not join the appalling list of unsolved attacks on Kyrgyz journalists.

In 2007, prominent Uzbek journalist Alisher Saipov was murdered in Kyrgyzstan. That murder has yet to be solved.

Pavlyuk, also known under the pseudonym of Ibragim Rustambek, was a respected journalist of Russian origin. He became well known as editor of the Kyrgyz edition of the Russian weekly Argumenty i Fakty. Later he worked as editor of the Kyrgyz edition of Komsomolskaya Pravda, as well as a contributor to the independent newspaper Bely Parokhod.

The Kyrgyz journalist was highly critical of the Kyrgyz government. Critics of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev have accused him of steadily tightening his grip on the country after he came to power following the 2005 ‘Tulip Revolution’.

Omurbek Tekebaev, the leader of the Kyrgyz opposition party Ata-Meken (Fatherland), said that before travelling to Kazakhstan, Pavlyuk was in the party’s offices in Bishkek to discuss details of a media project, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Pavlyuk was expected to launch the Ata-Meken party newspaper by the end of the year. Tekebaev said that Pavlyuk had not mentioned his upcoming trip to Kazakhstan during the meeting.

According to news reports, the Kyrgyz journalist arrived in Almaty on 16 December and was staying at the Kazakhstan Hotel. A man reportedly picked Pavlyuk up at the hotel at about 2:50 pm and they drove away.

Police are currently investigating the circumstances of Pavlyuk’s death.

Another Kyrgyz journalist of Russian origin was attacked earlier this month in Kyrgyzstan.

On 16 December, in the capital Bishkek, Aleksandr Evgrafov, a political analyst and a journalist with the Russian news agency BaltInfo, was forced into a car by two men in police uniforms and beaten. Evgrafov said that the men told him not to write “bad things” about Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL reported. Evgrafov was a known critic of the Kyrgyz government.

In November, IPI condemned the brutal beating of Kyrgyz journalist Kubanychbek Joldoshev in Kyrgyzstan’s southern Osh region. Joldoshev, a correspondent for local newspaper Osh Shamy (“The Torch of Osh”), was attacked after a taxi he was travelling in was stopped by traffic police, who took the driver away, purportedly for an alcohol-check. As soon as the police left with the taxi driver, three men approached the taxi and started beating Joldoshev. The police denied any involvement in the incident. The attack was believed to be in connection with Joldoshev’s reporting.