Man charged in plot to kill Uzbek dissident in Istanbul

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

An Uzbek national has been charged in Istanbul for plotting to kill a leading Uzbek dissident, according to prosecutors.

The suspect, identified as M.D., appeared in court late Dec. 3 and was held in custody on a charge of plotting to kill Mohammad Salih, who heads the Uzbekistan People’s Movement, and his son Timur.

On Dec. 2, Salih called police to his home in Istanbul after noticing suspicious people outside.

M.D. was arrested at the scene and officers later raided a house in Istanbul’s Pendik neighborhood, where they arrested five others.

Salih has lived in Turkey since the early 1990s, when he fled Uzbekistan after being accused of treason.

According to the Human Rights Watch, he was the only genuinely independent candidate to challenge President Islam Karimov in the 1991 presidential election.

In 2000, Salah was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison on charges of terrorism and anti-state activities.
In December last year, Abdullah Özbek, a critic of the Tashkent government, was killed in Istanbul’s Zeytinburnu district.