From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Tue Oct 17 2000 - 14:39:15 EDT
RELATIVES OF KYRGYZ SENTENCED FOR PLANNING TO KILL PRESIDENT
STAGE PROTEST.
Eight women relatives of seven men sentenced
last month for their alleged participation in a 1999 plot to
assassinate President Askar Akaev began a picket of the
regional administration building in the town of Djalalabad on
16 October, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. The women claim
that their men-folk are innocent. The men, most of them
shepherds with only elementary education, were said to have
been recruited by opposition Erkindik Party leader Topchubek
Turgunaliev. The entire case was based on the testimony of
one man, which was later retracted. Turgunaliev and all but
one of the remaining defendants were sentenced in early
September to 16-17 years imprisonment. LF
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