From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Mon Oct 30 2000 - 10:08:16 EST
TRIAL OF ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF UZBEKISTAN MEMBERS BEGINS IN TASHKENT
TASHKENT. Oct 30 (Interfax) - The Uzbek Supreme Court opened its
hearings of the extremist activities of the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan on Monday, and unprecedented safety measures have been taken
in and around the court building, an Interfax correspondent reports.
These hearings are based on the bill of indictment forwarded to the
Supreme Court by the Prosecutor General's Office on October 10. Twelve
people, among them leaders of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Takhir
Yuldash, Dzhuma Khodzhiyev (Namangani) and Salai Madaminov (Muhammad
Solih), are charged with extremist activities.
Nine of the twelve total suspects have sought refuge abroad, court
chairman and deputy head of the Supreme Court Bakhtiyer Dzhalalov has
said. Bearing in mind the seriousness of the charges, the court decided
to begin its hearings even in the absence of some suspects in compliance
with article 410 of the Uzbek Criminal Code.
The bill of indictment says that the movement leaders supervised
the formation of armed units that operated in different regions of the
republic. From 1991 to 1999, members of the Islamic Movement committed
19 murders, 35 assaults, caused a series of explosions in Tashkent in
February 1998 that claimed 16 lives and wounded 128, and carried out
acts of sabotage in the Tashkent region in November 1999. Yuldash and
Khodzhiyev also organized a raid into the Surkhandarya and Tashkent
regions in July and August.
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