Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Uzbek authorities this week jailed an opposition leader and a human-rights activist in a continuation of a wholesale crackdown on dissent. Sandjar Umarov, head of the opposition party Sunshine Uzbekistan, was given nearly 11 years in prison for operating a “criminal group.” Umarov has been a vocal critic of last May’s massacre in Andijan, when government troops systematically killed hundreds of protesters. Human-rights activist Mukhtabar Tojibayeva was sentenced to eight years for vaguely defined economic crimes. “This is a puppet show,” she shouted to the judge as she was led away, “and a tragedy.” Since the Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan has jailed nearly 200 people and booted numerous foreign charities out of the country.
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