By empty (9/18/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

An Uzbek regional court in Tashkent issued a ruling on September 15 sentencing prominent imam Ruhiddin Fakhriddinovto a 17-year prison term, RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported. Rakhriddinovto was convicted on charges of religious extremism and terrorism in a closed trial held in the town of Chirchiq, north of Tashkent. Fakhriddinov, who was captured in southern Kazakhstan in November 2005 after evading arrest since 1998, is accused by the Uzbek authorities of being a leader of the banned radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

By empty (9/17/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Three members of criminal armed groups have applied for amnesty in Chechnya in the past 24 hours, Chechen Interior Ministry spokesman Magomed Deniyev told Interfax on Sunday. \"Two of them supplied food and clothes to the illegal armed group, led by field commander Mitaliyev. The other, a resident of Grozny, fought against federal troops in 1995-96,\" Deniyev said.

By empty (9/16/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Speaking to reporters in Yerevan following an annual meeting of the Armenian diplomatic corps, Vardan Oskanian warned on September 16 that a recent Azerbaijani diplomatic initiative in the United Nations \"diverts attention\" from the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and may even \"slow it down.\" The foreign minister was referring to an initiative of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development-GUAM group seeking to add the issue of the region\'s \"frozen\" conflicts to the agenda of the UN General Assembly. Oskanian characterized this as is a \"new challenge\" for Armenia, but said that it stems from the fact that \"pressure on Azerbaijan is growing.