By empty (2/19/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Prosecutor-General\'s Office ordered on 19 February that the premises of the Omega group and of other companies owned by parliament deputy Zaza Okuashvili be sealed and searched, Georgian media reported. Okuashvili also owns the Iberia television station and the newspaper \"Akhali epokha,\" and the sealing of their premises triggered protests that the Georgian authorities were violating the principle of media freedom. Prosecutor-General Irakli Okruashvili told journalists later on 19 February that the search of Omega\'s offices yielded devices to counterfeit excise stamps.

By empty (2/19/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Several dozen Azerbaijani opposition activists detained for their alleged role in the clashes in Baku on 15-16 October between police and opposition sympathizers protesting the apparent rigging of the outcome of the 15 October presidential ballot have ended the hunger strike they began earlier this month. The hunger strikers, who were protesting the delay in bringing them to trial, were persuaded by opposition party leaders Ali Kerimli (Azerbaijan Popular Front Party progressive wing) and Isa Qambar (Musavat) to abandon their fast. (Turan).

By empty (2/19/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Prosecutors from the Sughd Oblast prosecutor\'s office rounded up a group of 14 suspected activists of the banned Islamic extremist party Hizb ut-Tahrir at a teahouse in Khujand, the oblast center, on 9 February. Hizb ut-Tahrir literature was also reported to have been found at the teahouse. Aziz Daburov, a police official responsible for special criminal cases, was quoted as saying that several other Hizb ut-Tahrir activists have been detained since 9 February, including law enforcement officers.