By empty (1/9/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Uzbekistan\'s Interior Ministry released a statement on January 8 denying a claim by human rights activist Elena Urlaeva that police were behind her beating last week, RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported. The ministry maintained that Urlaeva was beaten by relatives of convicts to whom she had allegedly promised legal services that they say she failed to provide. Urlaeva today reiterated her charge that she was assaulted by a group of women hired by Uzbek police.The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst brings cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.