Maxim Bakiyev, who controlled the economics portfolio in his father's ousted government, was arrested in Britain on Sunday
The younger son of the former leader of Kyrgyzstan has been arrested in Britain as a humanitarian crisis rages in his home country, with around 100,000 Uzbeks gathering on the Uzbekistan border to flee Kyrgyz mobs.
Kyrgyzstan has demanded the extradition of Maxim Bakiyev, accusing him of fomenting the ethnic violence in the south of the country.
Maxim, son of ex-Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was arrested by UK Border Agency officials on Sunday minutes after he landed in a private jet at a small airport near Farnborough in Hampshire. Bakiyev Jr was a key figure in the ousted regime, and had been holding talks with the Obama administration in Washington when mass street protests overthrew his father's government on 7 April.
Bakiyev Jr was in charge of the economics and investment portfolio. Kyrgyzstan's new interim government accuses him of stealing millions from state coffers. Today, Almazbek Atambayev, an official in the new administration, said he had funded the unrest in the south of the country, and was guilty of worldwide money laundering.
Edil Baisalov, the leader of the newly formed Aikol El party and the provisional government's former chief of staff, called on the British authorities to keep Maxim Bakiyev in custody.
