Trial Of Ethnic Uzbeks Resumes In Kyrgyzstan

Opening of the murder trial of 10 ethnic Uzbeks charged with killing a police cheif and his driver during the June 2010 violence.

KARA-SUU, Kyrgyzstan -- The trial of 10 ethnic Uzbeks charged with killing a Kyrgyz policeman and his driver has resumed in the southern Kyrgyz town of Kara-Suu, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

The defendants are charged with the June 13 killing of Kara-Suu district police chief Adylbek Sultanov and his driver, Uran Shamurzaev. The two were killed after going to the nearby village of Nariman in an effort to stop ethnic fighting.

The trial opened on September 29, but was interrupted after relatives and supporters of the victims physically assaulted the defendants and their lawyers. On September 30, the presiding judge suspended the trial again due to another such attack outside the courthouse.

The trial resumed on October 19 at a military headquarters in Kara-Suu, which is in the Osh region.

Sultanov was burned alive after being forced into the trunk of his car. His driver, Shamurzaev, was decapitated.

More than 400 people died during violent clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the southern regions of Osh and Jalal-Abad in mid-June.