Uzbek opposition activist says her husband murdered

Reuters December 13 The husband of a prominent Uzbek opposition figure has died in neighbouring Kazakhstan after being shot by unknown assailants. Nigara Khidayatova, a leader of the opposition Sunshine Coalition, said her husband Orifjan Oydin, 57, died in a Kazakh hospital last Thursday after two men shot him in November. "It was a political murder aimed at hurting me as much as possible," said Khidayatova, the head of the Free Farmers' party, which is harshly critical of the government. She told Reuters that her husband was shot in the yard of his house on Nov. 28 in the Kazakh town of Sary Agash, just north of the Uzbek capital Tashkent which lies near the border. The Uzbek General Prosecutor's Office declined to comment, saying that Oydin's killing was under Kazakhstan's jurisdiction. Kazakh authorities have not commented. Oydin, a Turkish national with business interests in Uzbekistan, settled in southern Kazakhstan after the Uzbek authorities expelled him in May in what Khidayatova said was punishment for her political views. "He was openly told he was being deported for my political activity," she said. Sunshine Coalition head Sanjar Umarov was arrested in October on embezzlement charges. His supporters say Umarov's criticism of President Islam Karimov was the main reason behind his arrest. Since the bloody suppression of an uprising in the Uzbek town of Andizhan in May, rights groups, critical journalists and opposition politicians have faced a government clampdown. Witnesses say 500 people died when troops moved in to quell the uprising. A Reuters reporter saw soldiers shooting into a crowd, including many women and children. Officials say that 187 people -- mainly "foreign-paid terrorists" -- died.