Uzbeks at prayer in the capital, Tashkent (Bymedia.net)
June 27, 2006 (RFE/RL) – A court in the Uzbek capital Tashkent has sentenced three people on charges of belonging to the banned Islamic radical grouping Hizb ut-Tahrir, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reported.
Surat Ikramov, who heads the Center for Human Rights Initiatives in Tashkent, told RFE/RL that Khairulla Mavlonov, Anvarkhoja Turakhojaev, and Makhmud Khoshimov were sentenced on June 26 to jail terms of between six and 10 years.
The men will serve their sentences in a maximum-security penal colony.
Moscow-based Prima News, a news agency focused on human rights issues, quotes Mavlonov's lawyer, Khusan Makhbubov, as saying the charges were fabricated and that the court ignored testimony from witnesses for the defense.