Tashkent, Uzbekistan
An Uzbek court sentenced 15 men to prison terms of 14 to 20 years for terrorism, after legal proceedings that international observers called a show trial. The men were accused of organizing an uprising last May in Andijan, Uzbekistan, after local businessmen were imprisoned on dubious charges of Islamic extremism. A few activists seized guns and broke the men out of prison, and thousands of people rallied against the government for days. The upheaval ended when security forces swept in and massacred hundreds, including women and children. At the trial, all the defendants recited detailed confessions as if they were zombies. Uzbekistan’s use of Stalinist torture tactics to force confessions is well documented.
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