By empty (5/2/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Over the past two weeks, police in Tashkent and the Ferghana Valley have detained dozens of women who are either practicing Muslims or whose male relatives have been jailed on charges of belonging to subversive Islamic organizations, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on 1 May. Four women were convicted in Tashkent on 24 April of membership of the banned Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir; four more are currently on trial on similar charges. (RFE/RL).

By empty (5/2/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In a two-hour speech to the court on 30 April, former Kyrgyz Vice President Feliks Kulov rejected as politically motivated the charges of embezzlement of state funds brought against him and claimed that he has demonstrated his innocence, RFE/RL\'s Bishkek bureau reported. Those charges relate to Kulov\'s tenure as governor of Chu Oblast in 1993-1997 and as Bishkek mayor in 1998-1999. Kulov is serving a seven-year term for alleged abuse of his official position; the prosecutor has demanded a further 11-year sentence.

By empty (5/2/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Presidential adviser Bolot Djanuzakov denied on 30 that President Askar Akaev gave orders to police to open fire on demonstrators in Djalalabad\'s Aksy Raion on 17 March, RFE/RL\'s Bishkek bureau reported. He described the 29 April allegation by the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights that Akaev had issued such orders as \"lies and slander\". Presidential press secretary Ilyas Bekbolotov said that only politicians’ intent on destabilizing the domestic political situation could make such allegations.