Watchdog

BAKU -- An activist with the opposition Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (AXCP) has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for taking part in an unapproved antigovernment protest in Baku.

Veysal Qasimov was arrested on April 1 during the demonstration in the capital's Nardaran district.

The leader of the AXCP's Youth Committee, Abulfaz Qurbanli, told RFE/RL that Qasimov was sentenced on April 2.

Last week, another AXCP activist, Dasqin Malikov, was arrested in the city of Sumqayit, about 30 kilometers north from Baku.

Malikov was charged with illegal drug possession.

Also last month, six young activists with the Nida citizens' movement were arrested for alleged possession of illegal drugs and weapons.

They remain in custody.

Opposition activists described the detentions of their colleagues as politically motivated.

KHATLON, Tajikistan -- Authorities in the southern Tajik province of Khatlon have denied involvement in the disappearance of an outspoken Uzbek community leader.

Salim Shamsiddinov has been missing since March 15.

A provincial police official said an investigation has not found "any sign that Salim Shamsiddinov was beaten or kidnapped by force."

Khatlon deputy police chief Eminjon Jalilov also rejected the March 26 statement by rights monitor Amnesty International that said Shamsiddinov’s disappearance “could have been a politically motivated abduction.”

Shamsiddinov, 58, a critic of the Tajik government, was beaten by unknown assailants in May.

He has blamed Tajik government policies for "straining relationships" with neighboring Uzbekistan.

Shamsiddinov recently called on ethnic Uzbeks living in Tajikistan to vote for an opposition candidate in the next presidential election scheduled for November.