A prosecutor on Tuesday demanded that an Uzbek Tae Kwon Do champion be sentenced to eight years in prison for alleged religious extremism.
Elmurod Nurakhunov, 27, and two other defendants are accused of belonging to the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect of Islam whose followers are harshly persecuted by the government of this former Soviet republic.
All three men have denied the charges. Nurakhunov's lawyer, Khurshid Azimov, on Tuesday told a district court in the capital, Tashkent, that the charges were "absurd" and demanded the immediate release of the three defendants.
Nurakhunov was arrested in September, after his wife reported to police that he was a Wahhabi follower. But she later rescinded her allegation in court, saying she made up the report to take revenge on her husband, who was seeking to divorce her.
Prosecutor Shakhrukh Narzikulov, however, said he believed the defendants' guilt had been proven. "I ask the court to punish them by giving eight years in prison to each," he said.
Wahhabi is an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia.
Uzbekistan has long drawn international criticism for its crackdown on Muslims who practice Islam outside state-controlled Mosques, accusing them of extremism. The justice system has been instrumental in the government's campaign against dissident Muslims.
The court is expected to announce its verdict on Wednesday.
Nurakhunov won the world championship in Tae Kwon Do _ a Korean martial art _ in 1999. He has also won titles in Asia and Europe.