Latest terror trials raise serious concerns - rights groups

International and local human rights groups expressed serious concerns as an Uzbek court last week sentenced 23 more defendants to long prison terms in connection with a series of blasts and shoot-outs this spring that killed more than 40 people. A wave of arrests and trials of suspects after the March-April attacks were viewed by human rights watchdogs as a clampdown on Muslims who worship outside state sanctioned Islam in this former Soviet republic of 26 million. The International League for Human Rights (ILHR) urged the Uzbek government to order an investigation into allegations of torture earlier this year by law enforcement officers against suspects in the terror attacks. "We urge you to take immediate and effective measures in ensuring prompt, impartial and full investigations into the many allegations of torture during these and other trials," the ILHR said in a letter to President Islam Karimov. "According to the investigations carried out by several human rights groups, the conduct of these trials was accompanied by harassment and torture of defendants while in custody," the New York-based organisation said. Thirty-three insurgents, 10 policemen and three children were killed in explosions and attacks in the capital Tashkent and the ancient town of Bukhara in March and April, which involved Central Asia's first female suicide bombers. The authorities have blamed the attacks on al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremists based outside the country. But the attacks have been used by Tashkent as justification for a crackdown on Islamists and opposition supporters that has led to widespread torture and detention without trial, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Last week's sentences, in which 23 defendants, including one woman, were jailed for between three to 18 years, bring to almost 100 the total of those convicted in connection with the spring attacks. Several defendants, held in a cage in the courtroom, earlier pleaded not guilty and accused the police of beating and intimidating them. "The defendants were made fearful, even in the courtroom, by the presence of police and security service people," Ismail Adilov, a local human rights activist, told IRIN. "Their claims about torture and intimidation were not taken into account during the hearings," he added. Ismatilla Nigmatilleav, facing an 18-year jail term, told the judges that he had never heard of any attacks against the government and claimed that he have been tortured into making a confession, his relatives said. Relatives of another suspect, Madina Kayumova, who was jailed for 10 years, told IRIN that Madina was "brutally beaten" while in police custody. She complained during the hearings about continuing intimidation by police officials. "Based on our monitors and interviews with relatives of the defendants, we believe that confessions from these people were extracted by torture," Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders in Uzbekistan, told IRIN earlier. In 2002, a United Nations rapporteur concluded that the use of torture by Uzbekistan's security forces was systematic. Britain recalled its ambassador to Uzbekistan last week after a memo was leaked in which he accused Britain of using information obtained under torture in the largely Muslim state. Uzbekistan has become a key US military ally since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States and has provided an airbase for US forces near the Afghan border. According to HRW, since Uzbekistan become independent following the collapse of former Soviet Union in 1991 it has jailed more than 6,000 people, most of them members of the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir. But the authorities say there are fewer than 2,500 religious prisoners in the country.