Tashkent (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The trail that began on September 20 against the 15 men accused of having caused and led demonstrations in the city of Andijan continued today. The men, who pleaded guilty, are charged with terrorist offences, belonging to banned Islamic groups, illegal possession of weapons and killing civilians, law enforcement officers and hostages.

Street demonstrations began on May 12 after supporters of 23 businessmen—on trial in Andijan for membership in an extremist Islamic group— broke into a local jail and freed them. The subsequent violent unrest against the government lasted days. Three of the Andijan businessmen were recaptured after being freed and are now among the defendants on trial.

Prosecutor Anvar Nabiyev alleges the participants in the revolt planned to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state. He told the court that "[s]upported by foreign forces, their task was to destabilise the situation and, finally, to set up a puppet state serving their interests."

The prosecution claims the organisers were trained in Kyrgyzstan, received funding from abroad, and "used so-called human rights organisations and foreign media to denounce Uzbekistan and blacken the activities of the Uzbek government".

It added that the men are linked to two Islamist organisations, the Islamic Movement of Turkistan and a branch of the radical organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group that calls for a world-wide Islamic state.

Officially 187 people died in the unrest but human rights groups say hundreds more were killed. They also accuse the police and military of shooting at unarmed protesters.

Uzbek President. Islam Karimov has said that most of the dead were extremists. Human rights organisations have said that the death toll was in the hundreds, mostly unarmed civilians who had come out in protest against poverty, unemployment and religious persecution and who were fired upon as they were fleeing the scene.

Many countries as well as the United Nations have called for an international probe but the Uzbek government has rejected the idea.

International observers have compared the legal proceedings to a Soviet-style show trial.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the security services of extracting false confessions from witnesses.

According to Holly Cartner, HRW director for Europe and Central Asia, "[i]nstead of going after the perpetrators of the massacre, the Uzbek government is trying to deny responsibility and silence the witnesses." 

"The government wants to prevent the truth about what really happened in Andijan from coming out," said Maisy Weicherding, Amnesty's researcher on Uzbekistan.

"People in detention are at serious risk of being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment", Weicherding added. "Some have been charged with capital offences. They are at great risk of being sentenced to death—and even executed—following an unfair trial."

Uzbek rights activist Surat Ikramov has also cast doubt on the legitimacy of the pleas, saying he believed the men had been forced to confess under torture.

"The authorities want to demonstrate at all costs that it was a terror attack, not a demonstration," Ikramov said.  (PB)