Watchdog

BISHKEK -- A judge in Kyrgyzstan is expected to announce a verdict next week in the politically-charged bribery trial of Kyrgyz opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev.

The verdict and sentence had been expected on August 11 in the trial, which Tekebaev's Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party says is a politically motivated effort to keep him out of a presidential vote this autumn.

But after a heated hearing dragged on into the evening, the judge first said it would continue until 11 p.m., if needed, and then said it would resume on August 14 instead.

Tekebaev and his co-defendant, former Emergencies Minister Duishonkul Chotonov, are charged with receiving a $1 million bribe from a Russian businessman in 2010, when Tekebaev was deputy prime minister.

Both deny any wrongdoing, saying the case against them is politically motivated.

On August 10, the prosecutor at the trial asked the judge to sentence Tekebaev to 10 years and Chotonov to 8 years in prison if they are convicted.

The prosecutor also requested that both politicians' property be confiscated and that the defendants be barred from government posts for three years after their release.

Tekebaev is leader of the opposition Ata-Meken party, which has alleged that the government launched the case in an effort to stifle dissent ahead of the October 15 presidential election in the Central Asian country and keep Tekebaev off the ballot.

Tekebaev was arrested in late February. On March 5, Ata-Meken named him as its candidate for the presidential election.

The mothers of several missing Chechen men have turned to European rights groups for help in finding their sons amid fears that some may have been killed by authorities in the southern Russian region.

RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service on August 10 obtained a copy of a letter signed by 10 Chechen women who wrote that their exhaustive attempts to find their sons by appealing to Russian officials have been fruitless.

They implored "all European human rights organizations" to help them.

The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported in July that 27 people in Chechnya might have been executed without trial in January after they were arrested over clashes with police in December.

The newspaper reported that relatives were forced to sign papers saying that the missing people had left Chechnya and that they have no grounds for filing claims with authorities.

Novaya Gazeta has irked Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov with a series of reports alleging grave abuses, including torture and executions, by the law enforcement and paramilitary forces he oversees.

These have included reports containing evidence of a campaign of sometimes deadly violence targeting gay men in the region.

Chechen officials have denied the reports, but other media outlets published reports that appear to partially corroborate them.