An independent Uzbek journalist is being tried on charges of anti-constitutional activity, membership in a banned radical Islamic group and organizing public disturbances, and media advocates say the case is part of a government clampdown on dissent in the Central Asian country.
Gayrat Mehliboyev, 23, was detained in July 2002 for allegedly participating in an anti-government protest staged by Muslim women whose male relatives had been jailed for religious extremism. His trial opened in a Tashkent court on Feb. 5.
In a statement this week protesting tightening control over independent journalists, the Union of Independent Journalists of Uzbekistan said Mehliboyev, who was jobless at the time of his arrest, was being persecuted for his independent views.
Mehliboyev maintained his innocence Friday and told the court that the banned literature allegedly found by investigators in his hostel room had been planted. He said he had attended a few meetings with members of the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir party but did not support their views and regretted his brief involvement with the group.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a secretive organization that aims to unite all Muslims under a caliphate ruled by Islamic Shariah law. It emerged in the Middle East and spread to former Soviet Central Asia in the 1990s. Uzbekistan harshly persecutes the group, drawing international criticism for jailing thousands of innocent Muslims for alleged ties with the group.
Mehliboyev's brother, Shavkat Mehliboyev, said Friday that the defendant had been forced to confess links with Islamic radicals through beatings and torture. Another witness, security service investigator Shavkat Alimuhamedov, testified that he had signed his earlier testimony that Mehliboyev had taken part in an anti-government protest without reading it. He said he in fact had not been at the protest scene and could not say whether Mehliboyev was involved in it.