SHEIYT-DOBO, Kyrgyzstan -- Six ethnic Uzbeks have gone on trial for rape and murder during ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan in mid-June, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
The defendants are charged with the murder of a Kyrgyz woman and her 10-year-old son, and the rape and murder of her 15-year-old daughter.
Kalmamat Bektashev of the Osh city prosecutor's office told RFE/RL that one of the defendants was a woman.
There is increased security for the trial in the town of Sheiyt-Dobo, after some Uzbek defendants and their lawyers were attacked and beaten by victims' relatives and their supporters at similar trials in southern Kyrgyzstan in recent weeks.
Some 400 people died and hundreds were injured in the violent clashes between local Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the southern Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in June.
The defendants are charged with the murder of a Kyrgyz woman and her 10-year-old son, and the rape and murder of her 15-year-old daughter.
Kalmamat Bektashev of the Osh city prosecutor's office told RFE/RL that one of the defendants was a woman.
There is increased security for the trial in the town of Sheiyt-Dobo, after some Uzbek defendants and their lawyers were attacked and beaten by victims' relatives and their supporters at similar trials in southern Kyrgyzstan in recent weeks.
Some 400 people died and hundreds were injured in the violent clashes between local Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the southern Osh and Jalal-Abad regions in June.
