Uzbekistan reduces opposition leader's jail term

Reuters April 13 A court in Uzbekistan has cut the jail sentence of one of the country's leading opposition activists by three years, his lawyer said on Thursday. Sanjar Umarov was sentenced to nearly 11 years in jail and fined $8.3 million last month for economic crimes ranging from tax evasion to embezzlement. Supporters of the leader of the moderate opposition coalition Sunshine Uzbekistan say the trial was political. He was arrested after he criticised President Islam Karimov over the government's use of force to suppress an uprising last year. "His sentence has been cut by one-fourth," Umarov's lawyer, Vitaly Krasilovsky, told Reuters after an appeal hearing. "The court has taken into account the fact that he's got five children." But Krasilovsky said his client was innocent and would appeal again. Since a bloody government crackdown in the town of Andizhan in May 2005, Uzbekistan has jailed more than 180 people accused of involvement in an uprising there and put pressure on foreign-funded charities and the few independent media. Umarov, a 49-year-old businessman with interests in cotton and oil, was not charged with participating in the uprising. Umarov's supporters say the authorities applied psychological pressure and drugged him while he was in jail pending trial.