An former Soviet army soldier whose relatives were told he died a hero in the Afghan war nearly two decades ago — and were given a coffin to bury — appeared in an Uzbek courtroom Tuesday accused of membership in an al-Qaida-allied terrorist group. Kosim Ermatov, 38, was extradited from Pakistan in June and is facing charges he belongs to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, his relatives said. He could face the death penalty if convicted of the most serious terrorism charges. "We haven't seen him since he went to army service in 1984. In 1986, we received a death certificate and we buried a zinc coffin," his sister, Dilfuza Ermatova, said outside the courtroom. The family was told that Ermatov was a hero, was awarded a high Soviet medal — the Order of the Red Star — and a school and street in his native village in eastern Namangan were named after him, said his mother, Kumrihon Temirova. Ermatov served as a truck driver in the war and was said to have died in an explosion with other soldiers, and his sister said the family was told not to open the coffin.
They heard he was actually alive five years later in 1991, when a Czech journalist came to the village and said Ermatov was still living in Afghanistan. But Ermatov never contacted the family, who didn't believe the journalist and thought he was still dead. Nonetheless, authorities immediately renamed the school and took away the medal. Relatives said Ermatov was extradited from Pakistan in June but didn't know the details of why or when he was arrested. His lawyer refused to comment, and officials refused to allow journalists into the hearing at Tashkent's city court. In the trial Tuesday, four witnesses testified they saw Ermatov in the late 1990s in Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan training camps in Afghanistan, Ermatova said. They said he was a driver and they never saw him fighting, she said. Ermatov has maintained he is an Afghan citizen and demanded that an Afghan Embassy official be present in court, and also requested that his state-appointed lawyer be replaced, his sister said. The family said they have also learned that Ermatov now has a family and five children in Pakistan. "We are happy he is alive — no matter even if he is on trial," Ermatova said. |