The U.S.-based NGO Freedom House has asked the Uzbek government to put together a group that includes human rights defenders to review the case of a prisoner alleged to have died under torture, RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported on 6 January, citing Robert Freedman, the senior program officer for Freedom House\'s Uzbekistan Torture Prevention Project. Human rights groups in Uzbekistan announced on 3 January that Samandar Umarov, a prisoner serving a 17-year sentence for membership in the banned Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, died under torture Uzbek officials have said that Umarov, whose body was delivered to his family on 3 January, died as a result of a stroke. (RFE/RL)