Uzbek Prosecutor Demands 18 Years For Opposition Leader
February 24, 2006
Sanjar Umarov (file photo) (RFE/RL)
Sanjar Umarov, the chairman of the Sunshine Coalition, has pleaded innocent to all charges. The political grouping has been a vocal critic of the government's bloody crackdown on protesters in the eastern city of Andijon in May 2005.
Umarov's lawyer, Vitaly Krasilovsky, dismissed the charges, telling RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that the prosecutor "has no proof of the many crimes that Sanjar Umarov is charged with."
Uzbek prosecutors last week also demanded a 12-year prison sentence for Nodira Hidoyatova, another Sunshine activist. Her sister, Nigora, described the proceedings to the French news agency AFP as a "show trial."