Weekly news wrap

In Uzbekistan, more than 100 people face charges in a new series of closed trials in connection with the May uprising in the eastern city of Andijan, the Supreme Court said in a statement on Wednesday. Seventy-eight defendants are being tried in six unspecified locations for alleged participation in the 13 May revolt, which was brutally suppressed by government troops. Separately, 36 policemen, soldiers and doctors face charges of negligence that allegedly helped rebels to launch the revolt, the statement said. Rights groups and witnesses said up to 1,000 civilians were killed in the government crackdown on the uprising. The government blamed it on Islamic militants and said 187 people died. In the past two months, Uzbek courts sentenced 73 men to up to 22 years in jail for their alleged role in the revolt in trials criticised by rights groups as a government-orchestrated show, with the defendants' testimony coerced by torture. Survivors of the Andijan crackdown have filed a lawsuit in Germany accusing the Uzbek interior minister of torture and crimes against humanity, a human rights group said on Thursday. Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov commanded the troops that opened fire on thousands of protesters in Andijan. The lawsuit against Almatov was filed on Monday with German federal prosecutors, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. German law allows prosecution of cases of torture and crimes against humanity regardless of where they are committed. It was not immediately clear whether German prosecutors would take up the case. Almatov is believed to be in Germany for medical treatment and could be arrested if the case is initiated, Lotte Leicht, an HRW spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview from Belgium. Facing Western criticism, Karimov's government has refused an international inquiry into events in Andijan and evicted a US military base used for operations in Afghanistan. But Tashkent has allowed Germany to keep its military base near the border with Afghanistan, despite its earlier request for all NATO members to end military activities in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nation, officials said on Sunday. On Monday, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry told US-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) it will no longer accredit its journalists or bureau in Tashkent, effectively outlawing its reporters. A letter from the Foreign Ministry to RFE/RL's acting president, obtained by Reuters, accused the broadcaster of breaking its rules by using freelance Uzbek journalists who had no accreditation. The news comes after Britain's BBC World Service closed its office in Tashkent and withdrew its journalists in October, saying the authorities were intimidating them. An international media watchdog expressed concern over what it called escalating press freedom violations in Uzbekistan, after Tashkent closed RFE/RL. Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that the move against the station marked the 'endgame' for free media in the country. The husband of prominent Uzbek opposition activist Nigara Khidoyatova has died from gunshot wounds he received in an attack linked to her political activities, Khidoyatova said on Monday. Khidoyatova, the coordinator of the Sunshine Uzbekistan opposition group, said her Turkish husband, Arifjan Aidin, died in southern Kazakhstan on Thursday, nine days after being attacked by two unidentified gunmen. "I absolutely insist he was killed because of my involvement in politics," Khidoyatova told AP. An ethnic Uzbek whose father fought against communism in Central Asia in the 1930s and was forced to flee to Afghanistan and then Turkey, Aidin arrived in Uzbekistan in 1989 to open a joint venture business. He was deported to neighbouring Kazakhstan in May for involvement in his wife's political activities and was wounded in the head in the attack on 30 November, Khidoyatova said. In Kazakhstan, an opposition political alliance said on Thursday it had filed more than 1,000 lawsuits over alleged breaches in the 4 December presidential election which was won overwhelmingly by long-time incumbent, President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The alliance, For a Fair Kazakhstan, said in a statement its representatives had launched legal actions across the Central Asian nation over various violations during the vote. According to official results, Nazarbayev won 91 percent of the vote and his closest challenger, opposition alliance leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, gained less than 7 percent. Western observers said the vote was flawed. Tuyakbai said the vote was manipulated and called for the results to be thrown out. Nazarbayev, who has drawn accusations of authoritarianism during his 16-year rule in the oil-rich former Soviet republic, called the vote "unprecedentedly democratic". A day earlier, a Kazakh court on ordered the early release of an imprisoned opposition leader, the prisoner's wife said. Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, a former regional governor and co-founder of the Central Asian nation's first major opposition movement, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2002 on abuse-of-office charges. His supporters and international rights groups allege the charges were politically motivated. The Ekibastuz district court ordered Zhakiyanov's release on good behaviour and said he could leave his prison settlement in northern Kazakhstan in 10 days, his wife Karlygash Zhakiyanova told AP by phone from the settlement. The release follows Nazarbayev's re-election to a new seven-year term. Under Kazakh law, Zhakiyanov was eligible for early release for good behaviour from 2 October, marking the completion of two-thirds of his term. A fight for control of Kyrgyzstan's largest mobile phone operator erupted on Thursday as dozens of armed police stormed the company's offices, leaving 90 percent of the Central Asian nation's mobile users without service for five hours. The shutdown at Bitel came amid a bitter dispute between Moscow-based OAO Mobile TeleSystems and a company called Rezervspetsmet, which is reportedly affiliated with the Russian conglomerate, Alfa Group. Mobile TeleSystems, or MTS, which is Russia's biggest cell phone operator, announced Monday that it had bought a 51 percent, controlling stake in Bitel from Kazakh company Alliance Capital for US $150 million. But Rezervspetsmet said a decision Wednesday by the Kyrgyz Supreme Court gave it ownership rights to Bitel and said it was behind the raid, which saw police and masked special forces breaking into Bitel's officers and holding a top manager and an MTS official.