JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan – A court in Kyrgyzstan’s southern Jalal-Abad Province has upheld the life sentence that was given to Kadyrjan Batyrov, the fugitive leader of local ethnic Uzbeks.
Batyrov, who denies any wrongdoing, obtained refugee status in Sweden in November.
Batyrov was tried in absentia by the Jalal-Abad city court in October and sentenced to life in prison for separatist propaganda, inciting interethnic hatred, and organizing clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the southern Jalal-Abad and Osh regions in June 2010.
At least 447 people were killed in the clashes and thousands more injured or displaced.
A few dozen are still missing.
The majority of the victims were ethnic Uzbeks.