Samandar Kukanov (in Uzbek Samandar Qoʻqonov, in Russian Самандар Куканов), born in 1945 in Forish District, Jizzakh Region, Uzbekistan,[1] was a politician from the Erk Democratic Party of Uzbekistan.[2] He was a member of parliament from 1989 to June 1992, when he was arrested.[3] In 1993, after a year of being held incommunicado,[3] he was condemned to 20 years of prison, on charges of financial crimes.[2] The sentence was extended at least once, thus becoming one of the world's longest-held political prisoners.[2][3] Despite his sentence being extended for three more years in October 2016,[3] he ended up being released in late November 2016, at the age of 72, after spending 23 years in prison.[2]
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