Watchdog

Independent journalist Almaz Tashiev has been buried in southern Kyrgyzstan one day after succumbing to injuries suffered in a beating, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Tashiev, who worked for the independent newspaper "Agym" (Stream), was buried in his home village of Jar-Korgon in the Nookat district of the Osh region.

He died on July 12 in the Osh regional hospital of injuries suffered on July 4 in Nookat.

Tashiev, 32, told RFE/RL while he was in hospital with massive internal injuries that he was severely beaten by drunken policemen after an argument.

The Nookat district police deny the accusation.

But Suiunbek Satybaldiev, the prosecutor-general of the Nookat district, told RFE/RL that there is some evidence to support the claims by Tashiev and his relatives regarding alleged police involvement in his beating.

He said the case will be further investigated.

Tashiev had worked for several media outlets, most recently with "Agym."

Melis Tashiev, the younger brother of Almaz, said that on the day he was beaten, Almaz and friend Rustam Kulushev went to the police department to apply for a new passport.

He said an informal party was being held to mark the promotion of a new head of the police station when a policeman started arguing with Almaz.

An Armenian court has convicted an opposition member on a charge related to last year's postelection unrest and sentenced him to two years in prison, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

Grigor Voskerchian, who walked free from the courtroom as part of a general amnesty declared by authorities last month after spending about 18 months in prison, was sentenced on July 10.

Voskerchian, a former mayor of the town of Abovian, which is about 20 kilometers northeast of Yerevan, and a local campaign manager for opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian in the 2008 presidential election, was originally charged along with six other oppositionists with organizing a mass disorder in the notorious "case of seven."

But after being pardoned and granted his freedom on June 22, he was charged and found guilty by Judge Gagik Poghosian of "making public calls for a violent overthrow of the constitutional order."

He told RFE/RL after the verdict was announced that he was found guilty in "the conditions of the existing political order."

Defense lawyer Stepan Voskanian said that by convicting his client on another count, the court in fact admitted "the absence of any element in Grigor Voskerchian's actions suggesting that he planned or organized a mass disorder."

Voskerchian said he will appeal the verdict to a higher court.