A court in Uzbekistan Friday sentenced a Tae Kwon Do world champion to six years in jail after finding him guilty of religious extremism, his lawyer said.
A district court in the capital Tashkent found Elmurod Nurakhunov, 27, and two other defendants guilty of belonging to the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect of Islam, said defense lawyer Khurshid Azimov.
All three men denied the charges and said they were not members of any religious group.
Nurakhunov won the world championship in Tae Kwon Do _ a Korean martial art _ in 1999. He has also won titles in Asia and Europe. He was arrested in September.
Azimov said the court verdict was unjust and that his client would appeal the verdict within 10 days.
Nurakhunov was arrested 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 But she later rescinded her allegation in court, saying she made up the report to take revenge on her husband for seeking to divorce her.
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.
Journalists and human rights activists were not allowed into the courtroom Friday.
In the past two weeks, at least 20 other people have been sentenced to up to 16 years in jail and more than 50 others are being tried on similar charges, said rights activist Surat Ikramov.