Wednesday, 26 October 2005

UZBEK OPPOSITION LEADER \'DRUGGED\'

Published in News Digest

By empty (10/26/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Uzbek opposition group Sunshine Uzbekistan fears its leader, Sanjar Umarov, has been drugged in custody. Mr Umarov\'s lawyer said he visited his client on Tuesday and found him naked in his cell and in a incoherent state. Mr Umarov was arrested on Saturday, charged with stealing an undisclosed sum of money.
Uzbek opposition group Sunshine Uzbekistan fears its leader, Sanjar Umarov, has been drugged in custody. Mr Umarov\'s lawyer said he visited his client on Tuesday and found him naked in his cell and in a incoherent state. Mr Umarov was arrested on Saturday, charged with stealing an undisclosed sum of money. Sunshine Uzbekistan, a vocal critic of President Islam Karimov\'s repressive regime, says the charges have been fabricated. The lawyer, Valery Krasilovsky, said his client had no clothes on, was covering his face with his hands, and mumbling, according to a statement carried on Sunshine Uzbekistan\'s website. \"He needs immediate medical attention and expertise concerning his current condition and illness,\" he said. Following his arrest, Mr Umarov passed a message from jail to his supporters, saying the authorities had exerted pressure on him and threatened to inject him with drugs. Family members have said they are very worried. \"He is definitely being drugged, because my father never acted this way,\" his oldest son, Gulam Umarov, told the New York Times. Sunshine Uzbekistan is calling for free market reforms in the authoritarian Central Asian republic. The offices of the group were searched on Saturday by dozens of men in plain clothes, and a large number of documents were taken away. Two other members of the group have also been arrested. Sunshine Uzbekistan officials said Mr Umarov no longer had any business interests in Uzbekistan, though he has business contacts in America. He had recently returned from visits to the United States and Russia seeking support for his group\'s reform proposals for Uzbekistan and last week wrote an open letter to the Uzbek parliament calling on deputies to begin talks with the opposition. The letter said people no longer believed the government, which was engaged in what it called a hysterical search for enemies. President Karimov\'s government has banned most opposition parties and rarely tolerates public criticism. (BBC)
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