TASHKENT -- An Uzbek court has sentenced three police officers in a case linked to mass anti-government protests in the country’s Karakalpak Autonomous Republic last year.
The Central Asian nation's Supreme Court said over the weekend that two police officers were sentenced to seven years in prison each on torture charges. They were also barred from working in law enforcement structures for two years after serving the sentences.
A third police officer was sentenced to three years in prison after a court in the southwestern town of Kogon found him guilty of perjury and failing to come to the rescue. He was banned to work as a law enforcement officer for one year after serving the term.
All three pleaded not guilty and plan to appeal the sentences. The police officers' identities were not disclosed.
In late January, an Uzbek court sentenced 22 Karakalpak activists to prison terms on charges including undermining the constitutional order for taking part in the mass protests in Karakalpakstan in July last year.
In March, another 39 Karakalpak activists accused of taking part in the protests in Nukus were convicted and 28 of them were sentenced to prison terms of between five and 11 years, while 11 defendants were handed parole-like sentences.
Uzbek authorities say 21 people died in Karakalpakstan during the protests, which were sparked by the announcement of a planned change to the constitution that would have undermined the region's right to self-determination.
Meanwhile, the Austria-based Freedom for Eurasia human rights group said last month that at least 70 people were killed during the unrest.
The violence forced President Shavkat Mirziyoev to make a rare about-face and scrap the proposal.
Mirziyoev accused "foreign forces" of being behind the unrest, without further explanation, before backing away from the proposed changes.
Karakalpaks are a Central Asian Turkic-speaking people. Their region used to be an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming autonomous within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1930 and then part of Uzbekistan in 1936.
The European Union has called for an independent investigation into the violence.