A retried Uzbek Army officer, Colonel Vladimir Kaloshin, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on high treason charges in a case that was tried behind closed doors.
Kaloshin's daughter, Anastasia Yepisheva, who resides in Moscow, told RFE/RL on March 5 that her father was convicted and sentenced a day earlier in Tashkent. She does not know any of the case details, she said.
According to Yepisheva, the Military Court of Uzbekistan, also stripped her father of the rank of colonel.
Yepisheva quoted her father's lawyers as saying that Kaloshin pleaded not guilty and he will appeal the ruling with all possible courts, including international ones.
The lawyers have refused to give any details about the trial, saying they vowed not to disclose the case's materials under oath.
Kaloshin had worked as a correspondent for the Interior Ministry's newspaper Vatanparvar (Patriot) from 1992 until he retired in 2012.
Sources close to Uzbek law enforcement structures told RFE/RL last month that, along with Kaloshin, a former director of a presidential think-tank Rafik Saifullin and chief of a directorate of the United Staff of Uzbekistan's Armed Forces, Akbar Yarbabaev, went on trial in February on similar charges.
Retired Uzbek Military Officer Sentenced On High Treason Charges
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