Key opposition leader convicted

An Uzbek court on Wednesday sentenced a key member of a banned opposition group to 10 years in prison for economic crimes. Tashkent city court convicted Nodira Hidoyatova, a coordinator of the Sunshine Uzbekistan Coalition, to 10 years in prison, banned her from holding positions of responsibility for three years after her release and fined her over US $200,000 after finding her guilty on seven charges, including tax evasion, money laundering and hiding foreign currency - charges Hidoyatova's lawyer flatly denied. "I think that Hidoyatova's guilt was absolutely not proven," Oleg Bobenko, her lawyer said. Earlier prosecutors had demanded a 12-year prison sentence for the 38-year-old, who was arrested in December following a trip to Moscow, where she gave press conferences to gain support for her group and criticised Uzbek government policy. Hidoyatova - who criticised the government following last year's violent suppression of protests in the eastern city of Andijan - has denied the charges and said that it would be better for her “to receive the death sentence than to live in such country”. The case against her is linked to her activity four years ago when she ran a company that imported tons of buckwheat from Russia which was sold in Uzbekistan. The judge said Hidoyatova’s “not guilty” plea was groundless and that “she acted as a member of the criminal group headed by Sanjar Umarov”, leader of the Sunshine Uzbekistan Coalition. Umarov is also facing economic charges, mostly related to the oil and gas trade in Central Asia's most populous state, and is expected to hear a verdict next week. Prosecutors are calling for 18 years in jail for the activist. In his final statement on Monday, Umarov denied all charges, maintaining the case against him had been fabricated and was politically motivated, adding that he had been intimated and threatened to confess to the economic charges. Umarov, a 49-year-old businessman with links to the oil and cotton sectors, was arrested in October 2005 following his return from the United States, where he has business and family links. The Sunshine Coalition gained prominence following the crushing of an uprising in the eastern city of Andijan on 13 May in which over 1,000 civilians may have been killed by security forces, according to some rights activists. Tashkent contends the uprising was orchestrated by Islamic extremists, and puts the death toll at 187. Umarov projected himself as a moderate, reform-minded alternative to the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and called for immediate free-market reforms. In February, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that cases against Hidoyatova and Umarov were clearly politically motivated. To date, courts have jailed more than 150 people for taking part in the Andijan uprising and more than 30 members of law enforcement bodies have been charged with negligence. But no police or troops have been charged for excessive use of force, and Uzbekistan has repeatedly rejected international calls for an independent investigation into the bloodshed in Andijan.