[RFE/RL] A Swedish court sentenced an Uzbek citizen to 18 years in prison for an assassination attempt on an imam. The court in Ostersund found Yury Zhukovsky guilty of carrying out an attack on prominent Uzbek imam Obidkhon Qori Nazarov in 2012.Nazarov, a vocal critic of the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, was in a coma after being shot at least three times in the northern Swedish town of Stromsund. His relatives say Nazarov suffers from brain damage.
The court did not say who ordered Nazarov's shooting but said "technical evidence" showed Zhukovsky had "acted on behalf of someone in Russia." It sought a life sentence for Zhukovsky.
Zhukovsky was extradited to Sweden from Russia in August to stand trial in the case.
Nazarov was one of the most popular imams in Central Asia in the early 1990s. He was granted asylum in Sweden in 2006, after fleeing Uzbekistan in 1998.