Three men have been arrested in Uzbekistan for the 2007 murder of a pioneering theatre director.

Mark Weil, who gained an international reputation as founder of Uzbekistan's controversial Ilkhom theatre, was found stabbed to death in his home in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

An Uzbek official said the three suspects told police they killed Weil for his "misinterpretation" of the Qur'an in a production he had directed.

Imitations of the Qur'an was based on verses and poems by Russian writer Alexander Pushkin.

Weil, who spent half the year in Seattle, was known for presenting edgy, often controversial works — including plays involving homosexuality, a taboo topic in the largely Muslim country, and plays that challenged the old Soviet system.

He had founded Ilkhom, the first independent theatre in the former Soviet Union, in 1979.

Marat Zakhidov, the Uzbek official who released news of the arrests, did not say where or when they had been made.