An Uzbek court sentences the participants in fatal anti-government protests that took place in the former Soviet republic last year. Of the 22 people on trial, 16 were sentenced to between three and 16 years' imprisonment for their involvement in the unrest in July 2022, which has an official death toll of 21. The violence in Nukus, the main city in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, was triggered by planned reforms that would have undermined the region's right to self-determination. The protests forced the country's autocratic president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to make a rare about-face and scrap the proposal. IMAGES