Ex-BBC reporter Vugar Khalilov held in Kyrgyzstan

Vugar Khalilov's supporters say he is being denied medical treatment

A British public relations executive who once worked for ousted Kyrgyzstan president Kurmanbek Bakiyev has been arrested and detained in Bishkek.

Former BBC reporter Vugar Khalilov, who moved there in 2009, has been accused of money laundering - which he denies.

The new government has been accused of ignoring Mr Khalilov's human rights and keeping him in solitary confinement since his arrest on 12 April.

Mr Khalilov's supporters have said the charges are politically motivated.

He moved from London to Kyrgyzstan, where he was the head of public relations company Flexi Communications.

Two-month detention

The 41-year-old was held by members of the national security service shortly after meeting David Moran, the UK ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Prosecutors confirmed his detention on Friday and spokesman Ulan Dykambayev said: "On April 12, the Prosecutor Generals' Office sanctioned the arrest of Vugar Khalilov on charges of legalising and laundering funds obtained in a criminal manner."

He told the AFP news agency that Mr Khalilov will be held for two months while an investigation takes place.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev maintains he is still leader of Kyrgyzstan

Supporters have set up a site on the social networking site Facebook.

Mr Khalilov's lawyer Artyom Ivanov has now met his client following representations in court, according to Mr Khalilov's brother Azer.

He also said his relative was a successful businessman who the new administration had used as a "scapegoat".

He said: "In a country where the president and his allies control most of the economy, it was inevitable that some of his business would be in contact with people close to President Bakiyev."

Health fears

Azer Khalilov said his brother had written 15 letters to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, but that these letters had not been received by the British consul in Bishkek.

He has since written another letter appealing to Mr Brown, Azer said.

He also added that Azerbaijan-born Mr Khalilov's family had urged him to leave the country during the recent protests - he refused, saying he had no reason to be scared and had done nothing wrong.

The detainee's brother urged the Foreign Office to ensure Mr Khalilov's legal rights were upheld and said the family feared his spinal hernia would get worse because of detention conditions.

"We don't want him to be given practically a life sentence of catching an illness during his confinement even if he is found innocent, which we are confident he will be," he said.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of the arrest and would monitor the case.

A spokeswoman said: "Consular officials have visited the individual in detention and are providing consular assistance."

Overthrown

The charges are believed to relate to a loan that Mr Khalilov took out to start his public relations company.

Mr Bakiyev was overthrown in mass protests on 7 April. More than 80 people were killed when anti-government protests in Bishkek, and other towns turned violent.

Kyrgyzstan's interim leaders said Mr Bakiyev's administration ordered troops to open fire on protesters.

They have said he should stand trial over the unrest in which 85 people died.

Mr Bakiyev maintains he is still president.

Tens of thousands flee ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan

A third day of fighting in the south of the country has claimed nearly 100 lives, officials say.

Witnesses speak of Kyrgyz men shooting ethnic Uzbeks and setting property alight; a BBC correspondent in the city of Osh has heard heavy gunfire.

On Saturday the interim government gave security forces shoot-to-kill powers.

Kyrgyzstan's interim government has urged Russia to send in troops to help quell the violence, but Moscow says it has no plans to intervene.

A battalion of paratroops would be sent to protect Russian facilities in the country, Interfax news agency reported, quoting a security source.

Both Russia and the United States have military bases in the north of the country.
'Shoot-outs'

Kyrgyzstan's interim government extended a state of emergency to cover the entire southern Jalalabad region, as ethnic clashes spread there from neighbouring Osh.

One resident in Jalalabad said fighting was going on throughout the city.

"At the current moment, there are shoot-outs going on in the streets," he told the AFP news agency by telephone.

"There is a veil of smoke covering the whole city," another resident told AFP. He said buildings on fire included a shopping centre.

Without international assistance there are fears the interim authorities will struggle to contain the conflict, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie in Osh reports.

She says buildings are ablaze in Osh - television pictures show street after street of burnt-out buildings and black smoke billowing in the air.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in April and now lives in Belarus, has denied accusations from the government that he is involved in the unrest in order to derail a 27 June constitutional referendum and elections scheduled for October.

Mr Bakiyev had strong support in southern Kyrgyzstan.

'We need food'

The south of Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet Central Asian state of 5.5 million people, is home to an ethnic Uzbek minority of almost one million.

KYRGYZ-UZBEK TENSIONS

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• Kyrgyz make up nearly 70% of the population, Uzbeks account for about 15% and are concentrated in the Ferghana Valley in the south
• Osh, the country's second city, is home to a large ethnic Uzbek community
• There has been tension in the south between the two ethnic groups over land and housing
• In 1990, hundreds were killed in Osh in clashes between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks

Eyewitness: 'We're hiding' In pictures: Violence in Kyrgyzstan

The violence has prompted tens of thousands of people to head for the nearby border with Uzbekistan.

Uzbek emergency officials said at least 30,000 people had crossed the border from Kyrgyzstan. One official told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency that 75,000 had entered Uzbekistan.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had received similar reports.

Ethnic Uzbek eyewitnesses told our correspondent at a border crossing with Uzbekistan that gangs of armed Kyrgyz had been marauding through neighbourhoods, killing residents and burning homes.

One woman pleaded for help: "We need food, we need water, I have got two sons and they are little and I need water and food to survive."

There have also been reports of Kyrgyz casualties.

One Kyrgyz family the BBC spoke to by telephone said an Uzbek boy armed with a gun shot dead three Kyrgyz men who were approaching them.

Pakistan says one of its citizens, a student, has been killed in Osh and it is investigating reports that 15 others have been taken hostage.

More than 1,000 people have been wounded in the violence, the authorities say. Some reports say the casualty figures could be much higher.

It is not clear what sparked the latest unrest.

According to local reports, fighting broke out between rival gangs and developed into gun battles late on Thursday.

In recent weeks, several incidents had prompted fears of inter-ethnic violence between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.

The clashes are the worst ethnic violence to hit southern Kyrgyzstan since 1990, when several hundred people were killed. Kyrgyzstan was then part of the Soviet Union, which sent in troops to quell the unrest.