UZBEKISTAN/USA: Uzbekistan's highest court finds 15 men guilty of Islamist terrorist plot in town of Andizhan/ U.S. condemns trial as unfair.

Record ID: 858179

  • Title: UZBEKISTAN/USA: Uzbekistan's highest court finds 15 men guilty of Islamist terrorist plot in town of Andizhan/ U.S. condemns trial as unfair.
  • Date: 15th November 2005
  • Summary: CLOSE OF JUDGE SPEAKING
  • Embargoed: 30th November 2005 12:00
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  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAC6IVHHHWXGDALWEWLY01KO58K
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  • Story Text: Uzbekistan's highest court found 15 men guilty on Monday (November 14) of an Islamist terrorist plot in the town of Andizhan, after a trial condemned by the United States as unfair.
    The court sentenced the men to between 14 and 20 years in prison for their role in the unrest in May in which witnesses say hundreds died.
    In criticism likely to be echoed by Western countries, a human rights campaigner at the court in the capital Tashkent said the case had been a show trial used to cover up the massacre of civilians by government troops.
    But hardline President Islam Karimov received a warmer reception in Moscow, where a newspaper said Russian President Vladimir Putin would pledge military help to quell any further unrest in the Central Asian state.
    Witnesses in Andizhan on May 13, including a Reuters reporter, said Uzbek troops fired at a crowd of men, women and children who had gathered in the main square after armed men broke 23 local businessmen out of jail.
    Troops killed hundreds of people and shot dead some of the wounded, eyewitnesses have told Reuters. The authorities say 187 people died -- mainly "foreign-paid terrorists".
    The 15 men on trial in Tashkent, who all pleaded guilty, stood with heads bowed inside a metal cage for five hours as the judge read a narrative supporting the official view of events.
    Judge Bakhtyor Jamolov said the accused received "terrorist" training in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and staged the uprising in Andizhan as part of a plot to set up an Islamic caliphate in Uzbekistan.
    Jamolov also reiterated that Western media in Andizhan on May 13 helped the "terrorists". His summing up repeated what prosecutors had told the court and the accused had said in their confessions.
    But, the United States condemned the ruling and said it was considering sanctions against Uzbekistan, while the European Union banned arms sales to the Central Asian country.
    "These convictions are based on evidence that isn't credible and a trial that isn't fair," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters on Monday (November 14).
    The trial, which started in September, featured dozens of witnesses who also supported the official line..
    The only witness to testify that she saw troops opening fire on civilians, Makhbuba Zakirova, had lied, the judge said.
    Visited 10 days ago by Reuters in Andizhan, Zakirova said she was now too scared to talk about her testimony.
    The West has criticised Karimov for using indiscriminate force to quash the Andizhan revolt, but Moscow, keen to strengthen its position in the ex-Soviet world, has backed him.
    Karimov had poor relations with Moscow before the Andizhan events but has since softened his stance towards Uzbekistan's former Soviet overlord.
    The European Union has imposed an arms embargo and visa ban on some Uzbek officials since Andizhan. In July, Uzbekistan gave the United States 180 days to leave a Soviet-era base which the Pentagon had used for U.S. operations in Afghanistan after Washington criticised its violent suppression of the uprising.
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