BISHKEK, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - Felix Kulov, leader of Kyrgyzstan's radical opposition and a former premier, has been formally charged with staging mass riots in the country in April, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Authorities sanctioned the arrest of three of Kulov's associates in the United Front movement for organizing protest meetings in the capital, Bishkek, April 11, which were dispersed April 19. They were released after Kulov offered to go to jail in their place.

"Today he was formally charged," Lyubov Ivanova said. "Up to now he had been involved in the case as a witness."

A former political prisoner who came to power together with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on the back of violent mass protests in March 2005, Kulov said earlier this year that his main objective was to prevent a split between the country's prosperous north and the poorer south, which is where Bakiyev is from.

The United Front accuses Bakiyev of failing to improve living standards, curb corruption and introduce democracy in the impoverished Central Asian republic. The mass protests organized by the opposition demanded the president's resignation and early elections.