Former Kyrgyz Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev has been detained in Moscow and deported back to Bishkek, news agencies reported on Monday.
Kongantiyev, held responsible by the Kyrgyz interim government for the violent clashes between protestors and security forces earlier this month, was detained on Sunday night in Moscow, and has now been in custody in Bishkek.
The ex-minister was severely wounded during the unrest in the Kyrgyz city of Talas on April 6, when he was captured by the protestors. He showed up with head injuries on television.
The riot that later spread to Bishkek has resulted in the ouster of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the formation of an interim government led by Roza Otunbayeva, as well as the deaths of at least 80 people.
Kongantiyev's whereabouts afterwards remained unknown until the Sunday detention carried out jointly by Kyrgyz and Russian security officers, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Meanwhile on Monday, Almazbek Atambayev, a deputy prime minister of the interim government and head of a commission to secure law and order and security, thanked Russia's assistance for detaining Kongantiyev.
"With the assistance of Russian law enforcement bodies, we succeeded in detaining in Moscow the former head of the Interior Ministry, Moldomusa Kongantiyev," said Atambayev at a Monday session of the commission.
"We are grateful to Russia's Federal Security Service for the assistance that it rendered in his detention. Kongantiyev is charged with acting against opposition supporters on April 6-7," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who was currently in Bishkek to meeting with senior interim officials, expressed readiness to interact with Kyrgyzstan and help stabilize the country's situation.