Concern over jailed opposition leader

The arrested leader of a pro-reform opposition block in Uzbekistan is still being interrogated in custody and needs medical care, his lawyer said on Tuesday. "We met Sanjar [Umarov] yesterday after we had been trying to get access to him for a week and we were finally allowed to see him…. Overall he looked normal as we talked to him and everything [he spoke] was clear," Vitaliy Krasilovski, Umarov's lawyer, said from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "As a group of four lawyers, we are re-submitting a request for a medical check-up for him today [Tuesday]. But since 15 November we have not received an answer. When we met him yesterday he complained of increased blood pressure and would like to receive medical help for that," Krasilovski added. The investigation was still going on, with no information yet available on how long it would take. "We suppose it may take at least a month or two," Krasilovski noted, adding that he could not go into any further detail given that the final charges against his client had not been put forward and he had to adhere to the secrecy of the investigation. Sanjar Umarov, 49, is the leader of 'Serkuyosh Uzbekistonim' (Sunshine Uzbekistan) – a new opposition coalition that was established in Uzbekistan in April. Umarov is also a successful businessman with links to the energy and cotton sectors and gained popularity following his vocal denunciation of the violent clampdown on protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan in May. Rights groups say upwards of 1,000 mainly unarmed civilians were killed by Uzbek security forces when they suppressed the dissent. Tashkent puts the death toll at 187, saying they were Islamic militants. Umarov was arrested on 22 October following a raid on his office and charged with embezzlement of “millions of soms [Uzbek currency] and other economic crimes,” according to the prosecutor-general’s office. Three days later, he was reportedly found naked and incoherent in his cell by Krasilovsky, while the coalition's coordinator, Nodira Khidayatova, told reporters in Moscow that psychotropic drugs might have been used to silence him. “His arrest is absolutely politically motivated. I think the authorities are worried that our coalition is gaining support nationally,” Khidoyatova said earlier.