Uzbek Court Upholds Sentence Against Rights Activist
November 10, 2006
November 10, 2006 -- The appeals chamber of the Qashqadarya regional court has upheld a prison sentence handed down last month to Uzbek rights activist Yodgor Turlibekov.
The uznews.net independent website says neither Turlibekov's relatives nor his lawyer were informed of the court hearings.
The 69-year-old Turlibekov was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail on October 6 on extortion charges his relatives say are trumped up.
Turlibekov heads the Qashqadariya branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan. He was arrested on June 16 and kept for nearly four months in a pretrial detention facility in distant Bukhara.
Uznews.net says his current whereabouts are unknown and that his close relatives have had their telephone line cut.
(uznews.net)