Uzbekistan\'s Interior Ministry released a statement on January 8 denying a claim by human rights activist Elena Urlaeva that police were behind her beating last week, RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported. The ministry maintained that Urlaeva was beaten by relatives of convicts to whom she had allegedly promised legal services that they say she failed to provide. Urlaeva today reiterated her charge that she was assaulted by a group of women hired by Uzbek police. Urlaeva has suffered beatings and detentions in the past, and has been sentenced to forced psychiatric treatment three times. Human rights organizations have protested her forced hospitalization. (RFE/RL)