Voice of America reporter on trial in Uzbekistan

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OSH, Kyrgyzstan, Oct 7 (AP): An Uzbek rights group says a journalist for Voice of America has gone on trial in Uzbekistan on charges including slander and posing a threat to public order.
Abdumalik Boboyev is accused of insulting state officials and police through his reports.
The U.S. and British ambassadors were denied entry to the first hearing Thursday.
Boboyev faces up to eight years in jail if found guilty of all the charges against him.
His trial echoes a similar case against a filmmaker who was convicted of slander earlier this year, and released on amnesty, after making a documentary on wedding rituals in the authoritarian former Soviet state.