By empty (10/2/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Dushanbe city Prosecutor Habib Vohidov told a law enforcement council meeting in Dushanbe on 2 October that between 1998 and September 2003 more than 600 activists of the banned Muslim extremist party Hizb ut-Tahrir have been sentenced in Tajikistan to prison terms of 10-18 years. Thirty-four activists have been arrested in Dushanbe alone since 2001, from whom three tons of subversive literature were confiscated, Vohidov added. The usual charges against Hizb ut-Tahrir members are inciting religious hatred, seeking to overthrow the constitutional order, and membership in a criminal organization.

By empty (10/2/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Members of the Kyrgyz opposition Ar-Namys Party picketed outside the UN building in New York on 1 October while Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev was delivering a speech to the General Assembly, gazeta.kg reported on 2 October. As well as demanding the release from prison of party leader Feliks Kulov -- who is serving a 10-year sentence for alleged crimes committed while he held various government posts, including vice president, head of the National Security Committee, and mayor of Bishkek -- the picketers handed out leaflets critical of the current government of Kyrgyzstan.

By empty (10/2/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Azeri President Heidar Aliyev announced he was stepping down from office after 10 years as head of the former Soviet republic, and anointed his son Ilham as his chosen successor. In an official statement read out Thursday on national television by an anchor, Aliyev, who has been stricken by heart failure, said he was dropping out of presidential elections scheduled for October 15. \"I am withdrawing my candidacy in favor of Ilham Aliyev.