Open letter to Indiana University

As we know, Ilhom Tuychievich Nematov, the Republic of Uzbekistan's ambassador to the United States, will visit Indiana University Bloomington on Monday, Nov. 26, and review its extensive educational and research offerings about the Central Asian nation.

Please, take a chance to discuss with Mr. Nematov the situation with human rights in his country.

Cases of persecution of members of the Christian community in Uzbekistan are mounting daily. However, it does not seem that the mainstream, and indeed non-mainstream, media are keen to pay worthy attention to the alarming events taking place in this country.

The real problem underlying the vast majority of these events is linked to the Uzbek Government’s efforts to construct court cases against the members of the Christian minority in a way, which looks legitimate and lawful. The police and criminal justice system of the country are being used to bring innocent Christians before its courts, which are well-known for their bias and implicit dependence on the government.

As a general overview, religious freedom of Christians in Uzbekistan is one of the most difficult issues in the country’s predominantly Muslim environment, where only two mainstream religions – Orthodox Christianity and Judaism – are recognized and seemingly tolerated by the country’s traditional society. Despite the fact that the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan asserts that “democracy in the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be based upon common human principles, according to which the highest value shall be the human being, his life, freedom, honor, dignity and other inalienable rights”, the Uzbek government made every effort to restrict not only religious freedoms, but also freedom of speech and press, the right to assembly.

The situation for the Uzbek Christians is not safe. Authorities have started to tighten their grip on all churches. Societal hostility and resentment against them is growing, fanned by negative TV reports and publications. For these reasons, teaching their believers is an increased challenge for local pastors. The situation gradually spirals out of control.

Could you please take notice of this letter and help us in our troublesome efforts to alleviate lives of many Christians in Uzbekistan. 

Some examples of the persecution. 

END FORCED AND CHILD LABOR IN UZBEKISTAN

Uzbekistan's 'House Of Torture'

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Happy Thanksgiving! 

And please, do not forget of those who will be tortured, raided, humiliated and even killed during this holiday season in Uzbekistan, because of the evil will of its authorities.

"Leave only one spoon, one mug and one mattress for each"

Uzbekistan continues to raid private homes, confiscating religious literature and halting meetings for worship, Forum 18 News Service notes. Fines of up to 50 times the minimum wage have then been imposed on those subjected to raids. In one case court bailiffs illegally confiscated basic household goods such as a refrigerator, washing machine and dining table from a Baptist family, and have threatened to confiscate more household items as they will not pay an unjust fine they cannot afford. This has been taken place alongside state media attacks on the same people. State-controlled television has stated that people should buy and read only state-authorised religious books, warning of those who allegedly "misuse people's interest in reading books". It also claimed that only two publishers were allowed to publish religious books – but did not name the publishers or state which beliefs the publishers cover. A state Religious Affairs Committee official did not know the names of the two publishers.

Police in Uzbekistan have continued to raid private homes, confiscating religious literature, and have raided a meeting for worship as it was not conducted in the location the religious community was officially registered. Courts then fined those who were subjected to raids. In one case court bailiffs confiscated items such as a refrigerator, washing machine and dining table from a Baptist family, and have threatened to confiscate more household items as they will not pay an unjust fine. This has been taken place alongside state media attacks on the same people. State-controlled television has also told its viewers to buy and read only state-authorised religious books, warning of those who allegedly "misuse people's interest in reading books". It also claimed that only two publishers were allowed to publish religious books – but did not name the publishers or state which beliefs the publishers cover. "Leave only one spoon, one mug and one mattress for each" Three Navoi Regional Court Bailiffs on 11 September confiscated from husband and wife Artur and Irina Alpayev their dining table, refrigerator, piano and DVD disk player. The couple are members of a local unregistered Baptist Church, and have refused to pay a fine imposed on them on 9 June by Judge Oltinbek Mansurov of Navoi City Criminal Court for "illegally" keeping Christian books in their private flat. The three Bailiffs with two other colleagues had already taken away the family's washing machine on 8 August, Alpayev complained to Forum 18 on 13 September. The couple have five children. The order for the confiscation came from Senior Bailiff Laziz Isayev, who instructed his subordinates to "leave only one spoon, one mug and one mattress for each member of the family," Alpayev told Forum 18. Bailiff Isyaev's order also instructed the Bailiffs to make an inventory of the property of Nikolai and Larissa Serin, another couple from the same Church who were also handed large fines at the same time. During the 8 August inspection, the Bailiffs placed a restraining order on – but did not remove - their couch, two armchairs, and refrigerator (the Serins have two children). On 11 September the Bailiffs returned to take away the Serins' property. However, they were unsuccessful since the family is away from the city on a visit, explained Alpayev. Both the Alpayev and Serin families were told by the Bailiffs that the arrested property will not cover the June administrative fine, so they "may come back later and make a more detailed inventory of all that is left". Raid, confiscation, fines Trouble began for the Alpayev and Serin families on 22 April, when the Alpayev's home was raided. Navoi Police came under the guise passport-regime check-up, and confiscated Christian literature, including a personal Bible, Children's Bible and Christian song-book. Alpayev told Forum 18 that the Police took the names of the Serin couple who were visiting them, and on the same day raided their home, also confiscating Christian books. On 9 June, about a month later, Judge Mansurov fined them for possession of the literature under the Code of Administrative Offences' Article 184-2 (see below). Each of the men were fined 50 times the minimum monthly wage, or 3,146,000 Soms (about 9,176,950 Norwegian Kroner, 1,230 Euros, or 1,600 US Dollars at the inflated official exchange rate). Mansurov also fined their wives each 40 times the minimum monthly wage, or 2,516,800 Soms (about 7,335 Norwegian Kroner, 980 Euros, or 1,280 US Dollars). Judge Mansurov also ordered that the confiscated literature be transferred to the state Religious Affairs Committee for "expert examination". Alpayev said that after its "expert examination" of the books, the Religious Affairs Committee decided to retain the books as the books "are only for use inside a registered religious community". "Even the personal Bibles were not returned," Alpayev lamented. Alleged "expert analyses" are routinely used as an excuse to confiscate any book the authorities decide to confiscate (see eg. F18News 20 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1298). Courts routinely order the confiscation and destruction of religious literature, including the Bible (see eg. F18News 17 September 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1743) and Islamic texts (see eg. F18News 16 March 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1679). Illegal confiscation of property Bailiff Murtuzayev had already visited the Alpayevs' home as early as 3 August to demand illegally that they "urgently" pay the fine, Alpayev complained to Forum 18. He told the Bailiff that the Navoi City Court decision was not final, and that they had filed an appeal. However, the Bailiffs came on 8 August and took away the property before the latest appeal hearing in the Regional Court on 10 August. An official of the Navoi Regional Bailiffs Department (who did not give his name), who answered the Department Chair's telephone, declined to comment on the confiscations on 13 September, but referred Forum 18 to Bailiff Isayev. Numerous calls to Bailiff Isayev's phone the same day went unanswered. When Forum 18 called back the Chair's number, the same official told Forum 18 that it was the wrong number. "Did they really take away all that?" Judge Mansurov's Assistant, Shokhida Artykova, refused on 13 September to put Forum 18 through to him saying that he will not give any comments on the fines and confiscations. When Forum 18 asked her the question, she said that "their property was confiscated because they did not pay the fines". Asked why the Bailiffs confiscated the Alpayevs' property on 8 August, two days before the appeal hearing, as well as why they took away basic household items on 11 September, Artykova seemed surprised. "Did they really take away all that?" She also said that the 8 August confiscation was "illegal", but refused to say more. "I don't know what to say," she added and referred Forum 18 to Farhod Khalilov, Head of the Court's Chancellery. Khalilov's phone went unanswered on 13 September. Appeals fail Alpayev told Forum 18 that as well as the "huge" fines being beyond the families' means to pay, they refused to pay the fines on principle. The Alpayevs and Serins belong to the Council of Churches Baptists, which refuses to register with the State as they fear this will lead to unwarranted state interference in their community's internal affairs and religious life. The four Baptists' appeals to the Navoi Regional and Uzbekistan's Supreme Court were unsuccessful. Judge Z. Toshbekov of the Regional Court on 3 July upheld the fines, and the Supreme Court referred their appeal back to the same Court. Judge Nasreddin Daminov, Chair of the Regional Court, on 10 August upheld the previous court decisions. Appeals against state violations of freedom of religion or belief are routinely rejected in Uzbekistan. In a recent case, Vladimir Shinkin appealed to numerous state agencies right up to President Islam Karimov in his bid to have his son (an atheist) and daughter-in-law exonerated on charges of holding religious meetings he says they never held, for which they received fines totalling 110 times the minimum monthly wage. He is also seeking the return of confiscated Christian literature (see F18News 17 September 2012http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1743). Media targeting and slander Judge Mansurov, for reasons the Baptists do not know, described them as Jehovah's Witnesses, and the literature found in their home as Jehovah's Witness books. Alpayev said that on 21 June, 12 days after Judge Mansurov's verdict, Ferganskaya Pravda (Fergana Truth), a Fergana regional newspaper, published a "slanderous" article titled "They paid for breaking the Law". The Baptists were falsely called Jehovah's Witnesses, adding that the activity of this organisation is "illegal" in Navoi Region. Judge Mansurov earlier fined another Baptist Roman Nizamutdinov for "illegal" missionary activity. Following that verdict, he had published an attack on him – who the Judge also described as a Jehovah's Witness - in the 17 July issue of a local Uzbek-language newspaper Dustlik Bayrogi (see F18News 6 August 2012http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1729). Mansurov also published a similar article in the 17 August issue of Znamya Druzhby (Banner of Friendship), the Russian-language version of the same Navoi paper. Entitled "Entrapped by missionaries", Mansurov repeated many of his earlier attacks, including wrongly identifying Nizamutdinov as a Jehovah's Witness, as well as publishing his home address and the name of the factory where Nizamutdinov worked. "He had a good report at work until it was discovered by police officers conducting a passport check in his flat that he reads Jehovah's Witness literature banned in Uzbekistan", the Judge claimed. In the article Judge Mansurov also claims that Jehovah's Witness literature was found in the private flat of another Navoi resident, Dinaida Achkasova (her private address was also published). He reveals that he also fined her. He does not specify the amount of the fine and the date of the hearing, but it may be that it was in July, since this case was mentioned in his previous article.  Recent media campaigns and court decisions have directly attacked by name people exercising freedom of religion or belief. Both have falsely identified Russian Orthodox and Protestant Christians as Jehovah's Witnesses, stating also (correctly) that Jehovah's Witnesses activity is not permitted in several regions of Uzbekistan (see F18News 11 September 2012http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1740).  "Misusing people's interest in reading books" Uzbekistan's state-controlled First TV Channel on 22 August warned its viewers to buy and read only state-authorised religious books, BBC Monitoring noted. "We recommend that you read religious books produced only by the two publishers authorised by the government," the programme stated. "Some extremist forces are trying to misuse people's interest in reading books. Specifically, they are trying to put destructive ideology into religious books. That is why the publishing and sale of religious books have been brought under the government's control." Only two publishing houses in the country are allowed to publish religious literature, the programme claimed – but did not name the publishers or state which beliefs the publishers cover. It may have meant solely Islamic works, as Uygun Gofurov, described as an Islam researcher, stated on the programme: "These measures have been taken to prevent various errors from being published in books and enrich the meanings of their contents". He also claimed that "some jihadist groups and extremist movements are attempting to reprint and circulate books with jihadist ideology". Shovkat Hamdamov, Press Secretary of the state Religious Affairs Committee told Forum 18 on 18 September he did not know who exactly the two publishers are, and also declined to state why only two publishers were given the right to publish. "Please send us your questions in writing," he responded. The TV programme also said that law enforcement agencies conducted inspections at several bookshops, publishing houses and border checkpoints to "crack down on the circulation of unauthorised extremist literature". The report went on to show the basement of one of Tashkent's central mosques where the city's chief imam leads Friday prayers. It showed piles of reportedly unauthorised religious books being kept there. "There are forces that want to spread a conspiracy and turn people against the constitutional regime in the country," the programme concluded. A very strict censorship regime is applied against religious literature and other material of all faiths (see F18News 1 July 2008http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1153). Raid, fine, media attack Also raided by police and subjected to state-sponsored media attack were Grace Protestant Church and its Pastor Sergei Rychagov. The Church, in the town of Dostabod in Tashkent Region's Kuyichirchik District, has had state registration and so legal permission to exist since 1999. Government-backed news agencies 12news.uz and 12.uz published identical articles on 23 and 24 August that Pastor Rychagov was fined in August (the exact date was not specified) for "systematic violation" of the Religion Law. The Pastor was accused in the article of conducting religious "assemblies" outside the area where the Church is officially registered. A law-enforcement official (no names were given) told 12news.uz that on 11 August Pastor Rychagov organised "an illegal religious assembly" for residents of Istiklol village of the same District. In this assembly, 16 of Rychagov's "followers" of various ethnicities, as well as "five school children and preschoolers", participated, the information agencies claim. "During an inspection of the meeting place, the Police agents detected and confiscated more than 70 religious books, booklets, audio-cassette tapes, CD disks as well as miscellaneous religious items," the official was reported as saying. The home in Istiklol where the Church met was given to Rychagov as a gift by his follower Dmitry Kim, who left Uzbekistan permanently in 2004 to live in Russia. "Not without the help of Rychagov, the home was transformed into a place of regular religious assemblies, in which between 20 and 50 local residents – followers of Grace Church - participated," the official told 12news.uz. Raid defended Bakhrom Kuzibayev, Deputy Chief of Kuyichirchik District Police, denied to Forum 18 that Rychagov had already been fined, but said an administrative case against him was opened by his Police Department. "We are waiting to see the results of the religious expert analysis of the books," he told Forum 18 on 5 September. Asked why police raided the Grace Church during worship, Kuzibayev defended the raid. "He [Rychagov] violated the Law by holding religious meetings outside the area where his Church is officially registered." Forum 18 asked Kuzibayev who provided information to the news agencies, and why the Church's worship meetings were scornfully called assemblies. Kuzibayev responded: "We are not responsible for what these agencies write." Kuzibayev claimed that the books "seized from the Church" will be returned after the Religious Affairs Committee has conducted an "expert analysis". Administrative Code Article 184-2 Article 184-2 bans "Illegal production, storage, or import into Uzbekistan with a purpose to distribute or distribution of religious materials by physical persons". Punishments are a fine of between 50 and 150 times the minimum monthly wage, "with confiscation of the religious materials and the relevant means of their production and distribution"

Raid, beating, literature destruction

Police raided the Tashkent home of a Russian Orthodox mother Valentina Pleshakova and her disabled daughter Natalya, seizing their religious literature and beating Natalya, Forum 18 News Service learnt. Officers at the police station pressured Natalya to adopt Islam. Freed in the early hours of the following morning, they were each heavily fined later in the day and confiscated literature was ordered destroyed. After the intervention of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Uzbekistan, Metropolitan Vikenty, the fine was changed into an official warning on appeal. No books were returned. A government-backed website attacked them and another Christian the Metropolitan had defended, Muhabbat Mamatkulova.

On 6 August, police raided the home in Tashkent's Mirabad District of Valentina Pleshakova, a 53-year-old pensioner, and her 26-year-old daughter Natalya Pleshakova, who is disabled since childhood, Uznews.net, an independent Uzbek news agency, reported on 23 August.

At 4 pm "six strong men with sticks and bats" in plain clothes led by the local Police officer "broke" the gate to the yard of Pleshakovas' home and broke into their home, they told Uznews. "When Natalya, who is disabled since childhood, and who walks with the help of crutches, asked them who these persons were, one of the men gave her a blow, and then the men dragged her to the kitchen in the flat."

While the men turned the home "upside-down, and collected icons, Bibles, Russian Orthodox calendars and prayer books into one pile," the local police officer "filmed Natalya and her mother Valentina, who were trying to fend off the shower of blows from the men, trying to catch them say something in reaction to the blows and foul language from the men," Uznews reported.

Then a minibus arrived at the Pleshakovas' home, with Officer Aziz (the last name was not given) and several others in military camouflage armed with machine-guns. In the presence of officials of the mahalla committee (local administration), who are the Pleshakovas' neighbours, the two women were "dragged" into the minibus and taken to Mirabad District Police station, where the mahalla committee members were also invited as witnesses.

Pressure to change faith

Uznews reports that at Mirabad Police Station, Officer Aziz and other officers pressured Natalya Pleshakova to accept Islam saying that the Muslim faith is "better than Christianity, that a married man can marry them, because men are allowed to have four wives." When the Pleshakovas refused to write such statements the police officers threatened and beat them.

Then the police officers promised the Pleshakovas that they would be released, and compelled them to write a statement that "125 religious books were found in their home, the names of which were dictated by Officer Aziz". The Pleshakovas say they heard the titles "for the first time". The "exhausted" women were released at 1.30 am on 7 August, nearly ten hours after the police first arrived at their home.

Mirabad District Police on 4 September referred Forum 18 to police officer Elbeg Khayrullayev, who heads the Police's Department for the Struggle with Extremism and Terrorism. Asked why his colleagues conducted the raid and beat the Pleshakovas, officer Khayrullayev took down Forum 18's name, and then said: "Who are you, are you their lawyer or something?" He then put the phone down. Subsequent calls to his phone went unanswered. No one else from Mirabad Police wished to discuss the case with Forum 18.

Fines

After being freed in the early hours of 7 August, the two women were summoned later that day to Tashkent's Mirabad District Court. Judge Begzot Ermatov found Valentina and Natalya Pleshakova guilty of violating several Articles of the Code of Administrative Offences: Article 184-2 ("Illegal production, storage, or import into Uzbekistan with a purpose to distribute or distribution of religious materials by physical persons"); Article 194, Part 1 ("Failure to carry out the lawful demands of a police officer or other persons carrying out duties to guard public order"); and Article 195 ("Resisting the orders of police officers").

They were each fined 20 times the minimum monthly wage, 1,447,100 Soms (4,270 Norwegian Kroner, 580 Euros or 740 US Dollars at the inflated official exchange rate).

Judge Ermatov spent "five minutes hearing the case, and then without announcing the verdict," told the Pleshakovas to "go home." The verdict, which the two women received one week later, alleged that they stored in their home copies of "The Watchtower", "Awake!" and "What is the Purpose of Life?". The verdict noted that the state Religious Affairs Committee had described them as publications of the Jehovah's Witness religious organisation, the activity of which "is banned in the territory of Tashkent City".

The verdict claimed the women also engaged in illegal missionary activity by spreading Jehovah's Witnesses literature and resisted the police officers who searched their flat.

Judge Ermatov refused to comment on the case. "That case is over, and we gave our decision," he told Forum 18 on 4 September, brushing off Forum 18's question whether the court examined the police actions during the raid of the Pleshakovas' home and also why the peaceful believers' home was raided. He then put the phone down. Subsequent calls to Judge Ermatov went unanswered.

Still guilty on appeal

Both Valentina and Natalya Pleshakova appealed against the fines. The two women's case was taken up by the head of the Russian Orthodox Uzbek diocese, Metropolitan Vikenty. A member of the Orthodox community in Tashkent, who preferred not to be identified for fear of State reprisals, told Forum 18 on 6 September that the Metropolitan wrote to the State Religious Affairs Committee and to Sayora Rashidova, Uzbekistan's Human Rights Ombudsperson.

On 23 August, sixteen days later after the first decision, Judge V. Tsvetkov of Tashkent's Criminal Court with a decision, which Forum 18 has seen, cancelled the fines. The Court, however, upheld the part of the decision that the Pleshakovas "did violate" the Religion Law, and the lower court "correctly qualified the actions of the violators". Taking into account that the daughter is a disabled person and that the mother is a pensioner, it deemed it possible to confine the decision to a warning to each of them.

The appeal court decision also upheld the lower court decision that 125 religious publications confiscated from them should be destroyed.

Why the raid and fines?

The Pleshakovas told Uznews that they believe the local authorities are trying to find ways to confiscate their two homes and that the 6 August raid and court proceedings may have been related to that. Although the homes are "not in good shape" but because of the "location where they are situated" the two properties may be worth "tens of thousands of [US] dollars."

The women said that in late August, inspectors from the State Sanitary and Epidemiology Service came to conduct an inspection. They said that they are expecting new fines from the Inspectors now.

"Two-faced Januses of Religion"

Four days after Uznews first revealed the Pleshakovas' plight, the state-sponsored Gorizont.uz information agency on 27 August published an article under the name Nikolai Fyodorov entitled "Two-faced Januses of Religion". Alluding to the two-faced mythical Greek god, the author alleged that the Pleshakovas - and another Orthodox believer recently fined, Kokand-based Muhabbat Mamatkulova - are "hypocrites", and that they are not Russian Orthodox believers. "They regularly read the Jehovah's Witnesses' literature, and attend their assemblies," the article claims. 

Gorizont has a long history of attacking members of religious communities the authorities do not like, including Baha'is, Baptists and other Protestants, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Articles appear often to be published under pseudonyms. Independent human rights defenders in Uzbekistan, who wished to remain anonymous, have told Forum 18 that the Gorizont agency is sponsored by the National Security Service (NSS) secret police.

Forum 18 was unable to reach anyone at Gorizont to comment on the 27 August article. However, in February 2010, its director Daniyor Juraev refused to tell Forum 18 why he does not seek and publish responses from religious communities attacked in articles to the often serious allegations against them (see F18News 16 February 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1409).

The author of the 27 August article praised the level of development and human rights in Uzbekistan, claiming that "unfortunately some people, misusing the freedoms, try to master the minds of their kin and acquaintances to use them for their mercenary purposes, while disguising their missionary activity as though they are only teaching the foundations of a religion."

The author presumes that "such people when they are exposed for their illegal religious activity make various insinuations, making statements of violation of their rights they attempt to appeal to the official religion as well to the media." The author then likens the three Orthodox believers to "wolves in sheep's clothing". The author mentions that the Pleshakovas were punished without giving the level of the fines.

Sacrilegious?

Gorizont's author also claims in the same article that Mamatkulova, being a member of an ethnic Korean-led Protestant Church, presents herself as a Russian Orthodox believer. Mamatkulova, a resident of Kokand in Fergana Region, was "found guilty of giving illegal religious lessons," and fined by Kokand City Court in August. "It was established that Mamatkulova privately taught her daughter Omina religion without having special religious education."

The article described the fact that the Pleshakovas and Mamatkulova asked Metropolitan Vikenty of Uzbekistan's Russian Orthodox Church to defend them as "sacrilegious". It is an "attempt to compromise the activity of law-enforcement agencies, and to display themselves as prisoners of conscience". Their appeal to the Metropolitan is "provocative, (..) written under dictation of foreign missionaries, the purpose of which is to drive a wedge between the authorities and [Russian] Orthodoxy."

The author calls on "sensible people" not to ignore cases of people who without necessary religious education teach others religion and "destroy" their destiny. The author claims that a person taught religion in this way "(..) learns not only false interpretation of religious canons but finally falls into the nets of missionaries and sectarianism." The author also cautions the Russian Orthodox Church's leaders from "hasty conclusions," and calls on them to "pay attention to the hypocrisy of the mentioned in the article persons!"

Kokand fine

Gorizont did not specify the level of the fine handed down to Mamatkulova by Kokand City Criminal Court in August, nor the Article of the Code of Administrative Offences. However, Article 241 punishes "Teaching religious beliefs without specialised religious education and without permission from the central organ of a [registered] religious organisation, as well as teaching religious beliefs privately" with a fine of five to ten times the minimum monthly wage or arrest of up to 15 days.

Kokand City Criminal Court officials eventually on 6 September put Forum 18 through to the Court's Chair, Judge Adkhamjon Khashimov. However, Khashimov refused to explain to Forum 18 why Mamatkulova was fined, and why religious believers cannot keep religious books in their homes and teach their faith. "I cannot comment on that case over the phone," he said.

When Forum 18 insisted with the questions, Khashimov responded: "Look, I am in the middle of hearing a case. Call back later." He put the phone down without telling Forum 18 when it could call back. Subsequent calls to Judge Khashimov on 6 and 7 September went unanswered.

A member of the Orthodox community from Tashkent, who wished to remain unnamed for fear of state reprisals, told Forum 18 on 6 September that as in the Pleshakovas' case, Metropolitan Vikenty petitioned for Mamatkulova, and her fine was also subsequently cancelled.

The Orthodox community member welcomed the cancellation of the fines given to both Pleshakovas and Mamatkulova. "All three indeed are Russian Orthodox believers, and attend the Church regularly," they told Forum 18. Asked why then the Police and the media falsely identified the Pleshakovas as Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mamatkulova as a Protestant, the Orthodox believer told Forum 18 that in both cases the local police officers were to "blame". They said that the police officers "made mistakes, and mistook them for someone else".

Sources:
Forum 18
Uznews.net 

It is prohibited to keep such books at home

In what some in Uzbekistan think may be a change in the authorities' repression policy, there has been an apparent increase in confiscations of privately-owned religious books from homes during raids. Associated with this have been violations of due legal process, Forum 18 News Service has learned. These include denials of legal representation, misrepresentation of whether a defendant has pleaded guilty, verdicts not being provided within the time laid down in law, and so-called "expert analyses" that have confused Protestant books with Jehovah's Witness books. As police confiscated one Bible in Uzbek, one Bible in Russian, and a book by John Bunyan from one Protestant they said: "Don't you know that it is prohibited to keep such books at home?". Police also stated that the books would be sent for "expert analysis" by the Religious Affairs Committee, and that their owner will be fined.

Judge Oltynbek Mansurov of Navoi [Navoiy] Criminal Court in imposing the fine of 2,516,800 Soms (about 1,300 US Dollars at the inflated official rate) on 5 June ignored the fact that three books stored were not – as the Court claimed – books from the Jehovah's Witnesses. They were – contrary to the state's "expert analysis" - Protestant books, such as Evidence That Demands a Verdict by the American author Josh McDowell.

Judge Mansurov's verdict, seen by Forum 18, states that the books "according to the opinion of the Expert of the [state] Religious Affairs Committee of Uzbekistan of 30 April is related to the Jehovah's Witnesses religious movement, which was imported into Uzbekistan for use only in the internal activity of a legally registered organisation."

The verdict goes on to state that: "Jehovah's Witnesses are registered in Uzbekistan only in Chirchik [Tashkent Region], and therefore the activity of the members of the said organisation in other territories of Uzbekistan, including Navoi Region is unlawful." It also states that the "use of the given literature outside Chirchik is illegal."

Source

Christian books ordered to be destroyed

On 15 January Odiljon Solijanov, a member of an unregistered Council of Churches Baptist church from Pap District in Namangan Region in the east was stopped by Pap District Police officers. Solijanov was offering Christian books to passers-by on the street in the small town of Halkabad in the District, Baptists told Forum 18. Anvar Ganiyev, the local policeman and other police officials took Solijanov to the nearest Police Station and confiscated all his books.

Judge Kh. Sotivoldiyeva of Pap District Criminal Court on 15 February found Solijanov guilty of violating Administrative Code Article 184-2 ("Illegal production, storage, or import into Uzbekistan with a purpose to distribute or distribution of religious materials by physical persons"). She fined him 1,258,400 Soms (4,000 Norwegian Kroner, 520 Euros, or 680 US Dollars). This is 20 times the minimum monthly wage.

The verdict notes that the Judge ordered the destruction of three Christian books confiscated from Solijanov: "Ruth, Esther and Jonah" and the Gospel of Luke, both in Uzbek, and a book entitled "Come back home" in Russian.

"Is it true you were distributing literature harmful to our state?"

Baptists complained that the hearing was very short. "To make her decision the Judge asked only: 'Is it true you were distributing literature harmful to our state?'". Solijanov answered: "The Word of God is not harmful to anyone, and we are called in the Gospel to spread the good news"

Source

Physical violence against Christians

Three members of the same Protestant church in Jarkurgan, a town north of Termez in Uzbekistan's southern Surkhandarya Region, are facing administrative charges to punish them for their religious activity, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The charges follow police raids on 3 January on the homes of two of the three, Shokir Rahmatullayev and Lyudmila Suvorova, during which officers confiscated Christian books and DVD discs. Police chief Bahrom Tursunov, Captain Ruzi Nazarov from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and other police officers used physical violence against Rahmatullayev, and threatened him with criminal charges, to compel him to sign statements against himself and his fellow believers, Protestants told Forum 18. "I don't care about the law or your rights," one officer told him during the beatings. Captain Nazarov adamantly denied to Forum 18 that any violence was used, but refused to discuss the case.

Meanwhile, a married couple in Fergana Region have been fined, while it remains unknown if Christian literature and discs confiscated from them will be destroyed. A Protestant in the capital Tashkent has had his fine reduced, but the judge has upheld the decision to destroy his confiscated Christian books.

Religious literature confiscated during raids – including Bibles and other Scriptures - is often ordered destroyed by Uzbek courts (see eg. F18News 9 September 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1611).

Source

Fashion Week Cancels Show of Uzbek Dictator’s Daughter

Enslaving children and torturing dissidents is never chic.

The daughter of Uzbekistan’s dictator planned to unveil her spring fashion line at New York City’s prestigious Fashion Week. But her show was canceled after Human Rights Watch and a coalition of like-minded organizations spotlighted her connection to her father’s tyrannical government.

Gulnara Karimova isn’t just the eldest daughter of Islam Karimov – Uzbekistan’s autocratic leader since the Soviet era – she also serves as the government’s ambassador to Spain and the United Nations, a high-level position in a regime known for imprisoning and torturing political opponents and rights activists. Her father’s government forces up to two million Uzbek children to leave school for two months each year to pick cotton – a fabric woven throughout Karimova’s designs.

Karimova maintains a jet-setter lifestyle, which includes making a pop video with Julio Iglesias and launching her fashion line “Guli.” But according to a cable released by Wikileaks, US diplomats said most Uzbeks view her as “a greedy, power-hungry individual who uses her father to crush business people or anyone else who stands in her way.”

To get her Fashion Week show canceled, Human Rights Watch reached out to senior management at IMG, the event organizer, and Fashion Week’s main sponsors, like Mercedes-Benz – providing  examples of the abuses that our Uzbekistan researchers documented on the ground.    

We planned our Fashion Week campaign together with like-minded organizations, such as the International Labor Rights Forum and the American Federation of Teachers, which have successfully convinced Gap, H&M, and other major retailers to pledge that they won’t buy Uzbek cotton.

Roughly two weeks before Karimova’s show, slated for today, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth spoke with IMG’s top management about the risks to the event’s reputation when someone who represents a highly abusive government is a participant. 

IMG management responded positively to us and began to distance themselves and Fashion Week from Karimova.

We also contacted Fashion Week’s corporate sponsors, including Mercedes-Benz, as well as the fashion media and other journalists, about our concerns. We told them about how children working in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields – harvesting the country’s main cash crop – live in filthy conditions, often get sick, and work for little or no pay.

We also stressed how no one in Uzbekistan has been held accountable for the 2005 massacre in Andijan, when government troops opened fire on mostly unarmed protesters, killing hundreds.  Many of the country’s journalists and human rights defenders are jailed, and prisoners routinely tortured. Uzbekistan’s clampdown on nongovernmental organizations is so widespread that, earlier this year, Uzbek authorities forced Human Rights Watch to close our office in the capital, Tashkent – the first time in our 33-year history that a government shut one of our offices. In years prior, Uzbekistan had also closed local operations of Freedom House, the Open Society Institute, BBC, Deutsche Welle, and many others.

On the opening day of Fashion Week, the New York Post ran a front-page story, pitched by Human Rights Watch, with a soon-to-be-classic headline, “Dressed to Kill: Daughter of Murderous Dictator to Unveil Spring Line at Fashion Week.” It ignited a wave of global media coverage.

An IMG spokesperson told the press that, “We’re horrified by the human-rights abuses in Uzbekistan, and hope that the attention Human Rights Watch generates is able to effect change in the country. We also hope to work hand-in-hand with Human Rights Watch during Fashion Week and beyond to challenge those in power in Uzbekistan to take action immediately.”

Daimler, the parent company of the event’s main sponsor, Mercedes-Benz, also publicly distanced itself from Karimova. A company spokesperson told the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung that “Daimler has no interest in providing an open platform for a person who has been proved guilty of violating human rights.”

As the pressure grew, IMG canceled her Fashion Week show.

Human Rights Watch is now working with IMG and the event’s sponsors, urging them to better vet their potential participants so that abusers don’t have Fashion Week as a platform.

It’s fitting that Fashion Week won’t showcase a designer who represents such a repressive government. It sends a strong message: abusers shouldn’t be allowed to launder their image at the expense of human rights.

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Uzbekistan's Imprisoned Human Rights Defenders

Human Rights Watch calls on the Uzbek government to immediately and unconditionally release all wrongfully imprisoned activists, several of whom suffer from serious illness and at least seven of whom have been ill-treated or subjected to torture in prison, and urges Uzbekistan's partners to make their freedom a top priority in their dialogues with the Uzbek government.

Uzbek authorities continue to hold in prison at least thirteen human rights defenders for no reason other than their legitimate human rights work. They are: Solijon Abdurakhmanov, Azam Formonov, Nosim Isakov, Gaibullo Jalilov, Alisher Karamatov, Jamshid Karimov, Norboi Kholjigitov, Rasul Khudainasarov, Ganihon Mamatkhanov, Habibulla Okpulatov, Yuldash Rasulov, Dilmurod Saidov, and Akzam Turgunov.

Many other civil society activists, including independent journalists and political dissidents, are likewise serving sentences on politically motivated charges, such as Yusuf Jumaev, a poet and political dissident sentenced to five years in a penal colony after calling for President Islam Karimov's resignation in the run-up to the December 2007 presidential elections. According to his family, Jumaev continues to suffer ill-treatment in prison and is in very poor health. His family reported that in June last year, Jumaev was subjected to repeated beatings by his cellmates, but prison authorities ignored his requests to be moved. Then, in late October, without explanation, prison authorities made Jumaev stand out in the cold and in the heavy rain for approximately two hours.

Some of the activists featured here worked to shed light on the May 2005 massacre in Andijan, others worked to protect farmers' rights, document torture, and expose corruption and religious persecution. They are all in prison as a result of daring to take on such work.

Solijon Abdurakhmanov
Abdurakhmanov (b. 1950) is a Karakalpakstan-based independent and outspoken journalist who has written on sensitive issues such as social and economic justice, human rights, corruption, and the legal status of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. He worked closely with UzNews.net, an independent online news agency, and also freelanced for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. He also is a member of the human rights group "Committee for the Protection of Personal Rights."

Traffic police arrested Abdurakhmanov on June 7, 2008, when they stopped his car, allegedly to check his identity, and claimed they found drugs on the underside of his car. Abdurakhmanov denies knowing about or having anything to do with the drugs. His brother, Bakhrom, a lawyer who also represented him, and fellow human rights defenders believe that the police planted the drugs. During the pre-trial investigation, the authorities primarily questioned Abdurakhmanov about his journalistic activities.

On October 10, 2008, following a trial that failed to meet fair trial standards, Abdurakhmanov was found guilty of a fabricated charge of selling drugs and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The sentence has been upheld twice on appeal. Abdurakhmanov is currently held in prison colony 64/61 in Karshi.

Farkhad Mukhtarov, another human rights activist who had earlier served prison time with Solijon Abdurakhmanov in Karshi before his release in December 2010, told Human Rights Watch that Abdurakhmanov had been charged with numerous violations of the prison regime to make him ineligible for amnesty or early release.  These alleged violations included ‘not marching correctly' or ‘not sweeping up his cell', even though prison authorities have never provided him with a broom.

According to Abdurakhmanov's relative, in February 2011, Abdurakhmanov gave his lawyer a written complaint to submit to the Supreme Court, but the document was confiscated by prison authorities who claimed they would send it themselves. As of this writing, however, there has been no reported outcome and it is not clear if the complaint was submitted.

Azam Formonov
Formonov (b. 1978) was an active member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan in Gulistan, in Syrdaryo province, who along with fellow defender Alisher Karamatov monitored violations of social and economic rights, in particular the rights of farmers and the disabled.

Formonov was arrested on April 29, 2006 and sentenced on June 15, 2006 to nine years in prison by the Yangier City Court on charges of attempting to blackmail a local businessman. He was tried without the presence of either his attorney of choice or his non-attorney public defender, Tolib Yakubov, then-chair of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, who now lives in exile. A week before the sentencing, in a private conversation at the prison with Yakubov, he described how he had been tortured and pressured into signing a false confession.

Formonov is currently held at strict-regime Jaslyk prison (a violation of the terms of his verdict which specified that he be put into a "general" regime prison). Formonov has alleged he was tortured since being placed there, including being stripped of his overclothing and left in an unheated punishment cell for 23 days in January 2008, when temperatures reached approximately -20 C. More recently, Formonov told his family that on November 26, 2010, he and six cellmates in his brigade were placed in a punishment cell for 10 days.  Before he was locked up, prison officers reportedly pressured Formonov into signing a document under threats that the rest of his brigade would be beaten if he refused.

Formonov's family told Human Rights Watch that he has been repeatedly prevented from being eligible for amnesty because the authorities bring charges of violations of the prison regime against him. The alleged violations included such actions as "helping prisoners write appeals," although Formonov says he was never in possession of a pen and at most only spoke to others about how to appeal their sentences.

Nosim Isakov
Isakov (b. 1966) is a member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan who monitored human rights abuses in Jizzakh city.

Isakov was arrested on October 27, 2005, and charged with hooliganism on the basis of a neighbor's written complaint stating that he exposed himself in public to his neighbor's teenage daughter. Isakov's family and fellow human rights defenders found the accusation particularly shocking and offensive because he is a pious Muslim. At his trial, which began December 15, 2005, Isakov maintained his innocence and told the judge that while in pre-trial detention he had been beaten on his head with a bottle filled with water.

On December 20, 2005, Isakov was handed an eight-year prison sentence on multiple charges including hooliganism and extortion.  According to local sources, Isakov is serving his sentence at Karshi Prison and his family members have been warned not to speak to anyone about him.

Gaibullo Jalilov
Jalilov (b. 1964) is a Karshi-based human rights defender who has been a member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan since 2003. His work has focused on the crackdown on independent Muslims in the Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan. At the time of his arrest in September 2009, he reportedly had collected information on over 200 arrests of independent Muslims in the region.

On January 18, 2010, in a trial that did not adhere to fair trial standards, the Kashkadarya District Criminal Court sentenced Jalilov to nine years in prison on fabricated charges of anti-constitutional activity, production and distribution of banned material, and membership in a banned religious organization. On March 9, 2010, the nine-year sentence was upheld on appeal.  Jalilov was brought to the hearing with a swollen eye, suggesting that he recently had been ill-treated in custody.

Just seven months after his original conviction, on August 4, 2010, Jalilov was re-sentenced to 11 years, one month and five days on new criminal charges, allegedly on the basis of new evidence, in a trial that did not meet fair trial standards. Jalilov is serving his sentence in a prison in Zangiyota district, not far from Tashkent.

After a two-day visit in January 2011, Jalilov's wife told Human Rights Watch that since his arrest, Jalilov has repeatedly been tortured and ill-treated, including by being beaten with a nightstick that left him nearly deaf in both ears. His family also reported that Jalilov's lungs cause him pain (Jalilov has a previous lung condition) and that he is suffering from vertebral hernia.

On May 3, Jalilov called his wife to tell her that starting April 25, he spent approximately one week at the prison clinic in Tashkent because of a bad cough that caused him to have serious difficulty breathing, and requested that his wife bring medicines to their next visit in early June. Jalilov is in urgent need of appropriate medical care.

Alisher Karamatov
Karamatov (b. 1968) is an active member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan in Gulistan, in Syrdaryo province who along with fellow defender Azam Formonov monitored violations of social and economic rights, in particular the rights of farmers and the disabled.

Karamatov was arrested on April 29, 2006, and sentenced on June 15, 2006 to nine years in prison on fabricated extortion charges following a trial that independent observers determined was unfair. According to his public defender, Karamatov confessed to the charges after being tortured, including being beaten on the soles of his feet and suffocated with a gas mask.

Karamatov's wife told Human Rights Watch that he has been in very poor health since he was put in prison.  In October 2008, Karamatov was transferred to the prison clinic 64/18 where he was diagnosed with an advanced form of tuberculosis in both lungs. Since January 2011, he has been serving his sentence in prison colony UYa 64/49 in Karshi.  After his wife visited him in early April, she reported that Karamatov has continued to lose weight and is very thin, has developed sores all over his body and wakes up with traces of blood in his mouth.

Prison officials have repeatedly accused Karamatov of violating internal prison rules to render him ineligible for amnesty or early release. His alleged violations include ‘saying prayers' and ‘wearing a white shirt'. Previously, on December 30, 2008, when Karamatov refused to sign a document attesting a breach of the prison regime, prison guards reportedly escorted him outside, took off his hat and jersey, and made him stand in freezing temperatures for nearly four hours in order to force him to sign the document.

On April 25, 2011, Karamatov's wife appealed to the office of the Ombudsman requesting that Karamatov be released on medical grounds due his "critical health condition." 

Jamshid Karimov
Karimov (b. 1968) is an independent journalist from Jizzakh and vocal critic of the government's policies who regularly published articles on the internet, including on Uznews.net.

Karimov disappeared on September 12, 2006, while attempting to visit his mother at the Jizzakh Province Hospital. Soon thereafter Karimov was forcibly admitted to the Samarkand Psychiatric Hospital where according to unconfirmed reports, he was subjected to forcible treatment with antipsychotic drugs. There is no medical basis for Karimov's confinement or treatment, and it is widely believed that he is being held for no reason other than his journalistic activities.

Human Rights Watch has received worrying reports indicating that Karimov's family has been harassed and intimidated by the authorities and warned not to speak with anyone about his case.  In late spring 2008 Karimov's mother passed away and he was allowed to attend the funeral and to be with his family for five days, but was instructed not to contact anyone outside the immediate family during this time.

Norboi Kholjigitov
Kholjigitov (b. 1953) is a member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan in Samarkand province who defended farmers' rights, assisting farmers fighting expropriation of their farms. After working as the director of two state-owned farms he established his own farm, called Free Peasants, in 2004, and supported the poor.

Kholjigitov was arrested on June 4, 2005 and sentenced on October 18, 2005 to 10 years in prison on fabricated charges of extortion and slander. Since his imprisonment, Kholjigitov has faced ill-treatment and harassment by prison authorities, particularly after sending a complaint to the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan in November 2008. Prison officials have reportedly threatened him with transfer to a psychiatric clinic if he continues to file complaints. He is serving his sentence in prison colony UYa 64/49 in Karshi.

According to Kholjigitov's family, who met with him twice in recent months, Kholjigitov's health continues to progressively deteriorate. Kholjigitov suffers from a severe form of diabetes.  He has lost more weight and has great difficulty walking.  He has also apparently lost partial control of his right arm and legs due to complications from diabetes and has lost feeling in his feet. All of his teeth have fallen out, and he reportedly has stomach problems as he is unable to fully chew his food. His wife reported that he was unable to sit up as he has sores on his lower backside.

Kholgijitov reported that prison authorities have ignored his repeated requests to be transferred to the prison clinic in Tashkent for medical treatment. He is in urgent need of appropriate medical care.

Abdurasul Khudainasarov
Khudainasarov (b. 1956) is the head of the Angren branch of the human rights organization Ezgulik where his work focused on fighting corruption in the police and security forces.

Khudainasarov was arrested on July 21, 2005 and sentenced on January 12, 2006, to nine and one-half years in prison on fabricated charges of extortion, fraud, abuse of power, and falsification of documents. In a letter to his lawyer, Khudainasarov complained about beatings and ill-treatment he was subjected to the day after his trial ended. According to the letter, Khudainasarov was also put in a punishment cell the day after the verdict was issued in retribution for not confessing during the trial.

Khudainasarov is serving his sentence at a prison colony in Bekabad. His relatives reported to Human Rights Watch that he has suffered torture and ill-treatment in prison. Khudainasarov has filed complaints with the prosecutor's office and went on a temporary hunger strike to protest his ill-treatment. According to his wife, Khudainasarov attempted suicide in early fall 2008 and was rescued by fellow inmates.  His wife was able to visit with him in early April 2011 and reported that he looked pale and weak, that he suffers frequent headaches and rheumatism in his legs, and that his nervous system is damaged. 

Ganihon Mamatkhanov
Mamatkhanov (b. 1951) is a Ferghana-based human rights defender affiliated with the group Committee for the Protection of Individual Rights. He works on the protection of social and economic rights, including the rights of farmers, a number of whom were the victims of land confiscation in 2009. Before his arrest, Mamatkhanov regularly provided commentary on the human rights situation in Ferghana to Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Authorities arrested Mamatkhanov on October 9, 2009, under circumstances that appear to have been staged to frame him. He was sentenced to five years in prison on November 25, 2009, on fabricated charges of fraud and bribery. His trial was marred by serious procedural violations. Witnesses reportedly claimed that the investigator had instructed them how to act and what to say before and after Mamatkhanov's arrest.

Mamatkhanov's five-year prison sentence was converted to four and one-half years in a penal colony (koloniya poseleniya) on appeal at the Ferghana Regional Court in mid-January 2010. However, after allegedly violating the terms of his imprisonment in the penal colony, Mamatkhanov was transferred to a general regime prison in the Navoi region in spring 2010. 

During a visit in January 2011, Mamatkhanov complained to his family of heart pain and bouts of high blood pressure. In October 2009, not long after he was detained, Mamatkhanov reportedly suffered two heart attacks while in detention.

Habibulla Okpulatov
Okpulatov (b. 1950) is a member of the Ishtikhan District Branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan and worked as a teacher in a school in Samarkand until his arrest on June 4. 2005. He was tried along with fellow human rights defender Norboi Kholjigitov by the Samarkand Regional Court and on October 18, 2005, was sentenced to six years in prison. This sentence was later reduced to four years under amnesty.  Okpulatov is serving his sentence in prison colony 64/45 in Almalyk.

On September 30, 2009, Okpulatov was sentenced to an additional three years and eight days in prison by the Navoi City Criminal Court for alleged violations of prison regulations. The verdict stated that the court hearing was open to the public, but neither Okpulatov's relatives nor his lawyer were informed of the date of the trial, which took place in the prison.

After a visit with Okpulatov in late January 2011, his family reported there were some improvements in his health and that he had gained some weight, although his right leg is still debilitated. He told his family that allegations of prison regime violations continue to be brought against him, most recently in December 2010, when he was accused of using a dirty towel.

Yuldash Rasulov
Rasulov (b. 1969) has been a member of the Kashkadarya branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan since 2002. He worked to defend the rights of people persecuted for their religious beliefs and affiliations, especially those whose religious practice falls beyond the confines of state-sponsored Islam.

Rasulov was arrested in April 2007 sentenced in October 2007 to 10 years in prison on charges that included alleged anti-constitutional activity and membership in a banned religious organization. He is being held in prison colony No. 64/25 in Karabulbazar in the Bukhara region.

Authorities had previously brought politically motivated charges against Rasulov, sentencing him in September 2002 to a seven-year prison terms for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, distributing "extremist" literature and membership in a banned religious organization. However, the evidence presented against Rasulov in court only showed that he prayed five times a day and had listened to tapes on Islam commonly available in the mid-1990s. Rasulov stated at trial that self-incriminating statements about his alleged involvement in "extremist" activities were made after he had been pressured. He was released after spending roughly seven months in detention.

Dilmurod Saidov
Saidov (b. 1962) is an independent journalist who has worked to expose corruption, abuse of power, and the general social and economic situation in the Samarkand region. His articles have been published in many local newspapers, as well as by internet new agencies Voice of Freedom and Uznews.net, among others. Saidov is a member of the Tashkent Regional Branch of Ezgulik, and since 2004 had been actively helping farmers defend their rights in the Samarkand region.

Saidov was arrested on February 22, 2009 at his home in Tashkent on fabricated charges of extortion. On July 30, 2009, after a flawed investigation and a trial riddled with procedural violations, the Tailak District Court in Samarkand sentenced Saidov to 12 and one-half years in prison.

Saidov's sentence has been upheld twice on appeal. During a meeting with his lawyer in late February 2010, Saidov asked him to submit a written statement he had prepared to the Supreme Court, but the document was confiscated by prison authorities as his lawyer tried to leave their meeting. Saidov told his family that he was later "punished."

In February 2010, Saidov was transferred to prison clinic UYa 64/18 in Tashkent to receive medical treatment (Saidov suffers from an acute form of tuberculosis), but according to his family, sometime in late summer 2010, Saidov was transferred back to prison colony UYa 64/36 in Navoi.

On August 11, 2010, Saidov's family made a direct appeal to the Ombudsperson for Human Rights Rashidova who met with the family, promised to "study the situation" and then later sent a written response on Nov. 9, 2010 to the family saying that her office had no jurisdiction over the matter. On February 8, 2011 his family tried again to have Saidov's case reviewed, , but in mid-March they received a response from the Supreme Court dismissing their request.

In December 2010, Saidov's relatives reported to Human Rights Watch that authorities had accused Saidov of multiple prison regime violations preventing him from being eligible for the 2010 amnesty. They also fear Saidov is being forced to take psychotropic drugs or other medications which cause him to be disoriented during prison visits.  According to Saidov's relatives' Saidov "has become a skeleton."

When a relative visited the prison on April 27, prison authorities told him that Saidov had been put into a punishment cell for allegedly violating prison regulations, but would not say which one.

In another tragedy for the imprisoned journalist, Saidov's wife, Barno Djumanova, and the couple's six-year-old daughter, Rukhshona, died in an automobile accident on November 5, 2009, on the Tashkent-Samarkand highway. They had travelled to Kiziltepe to deliver Saidov's passport to the prison administration.

Akzam Turgunov
Turgunov (b. 1952) founded the human rights group Mazlum and is a member of the opposition political party ERK. He is an advocate for the rights of political and religious prisoners and speaks out against torture, helping others fight the police system. In the months leading up to his arrest on July 11, 2008, Turgunov had been working in Karakalpakstan as a public defender in a number of sensitive cases.

On October 23, 2008, the Amurdarinskii court in Manget, Karakalpakstan, sentenced Turgunov to 10 years in prison on fabricated charges of extortion. Serious due process violations denied Turgunov a fair and impartial trial and he was tortured in custody. On July 14, 2008 while he was in the investigator's office writing a statement, someone poured boiling water down his neck and back, causing him to lose consciousness and sustain severe burns. Authorities ordered an investigation into Turgunov's torture only after he removed his shirt during a court hearing on September 16 to show the scars from the burns, which covered a large portion of his back and neck. The subsequent forensic medical exam, however, concluded that his burns were minor and did not warrant any action.

Turgunov's family told Human Rights Watch that since he was imprisoned, Turgunov has lost a significant amount of weight and is in very bad health. Turgunov is almost 60 years old, but is forced to work multiple shifts at a brick factory in the prison.  He continues to complain of severe leg pain as a result of this work, for which he is not given appropriate treatment.

His family visited him in mid-April 2011 and reported that Turgunov is frustrated that his efforts to have his case reviewed have not brought about any results.  According to his family, at least once a month Turgunov sends complaints to various government organs in Tashkent, including to the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General and the Ombudsman, requesting that his case be reviewed.

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Physically assaulted by police

Galina Shemetova, a female member of an officially registered Baptist Church, gave a children's Bible in the summer 2010 to one of her work colleagues at the Tashkent Metro. She was subsequently charged under the Code of Administrative Offences' Article 240 Part 2 ("Attracting believers of one confession to another (proselytism) and other missionary activity"). The existence of this "offence" breaks the international human rights standards Uzbekistan has formally committed itself to implement.

On 1 April Shemetova was leaving a Tashkent hospital after medical treatment, for which she had been granted sick leave from her work. Then, in the sight of medical personnel, "police officer Vadim Kim of the Metro Police struck Shemetova on the head, and dragged her by her hair into a police car", a person who wished to remain anonymous for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 on 14 April.

Officer Kim categorically denied to Forum 18 on 14 April that he had done anything wrong. "She is a provocateur. In fact, she was yelling and calling for help for nothing", he claimed. "She was hiding from the police for one week pretending to be ill, and we needed to bring her to the court." Asked what Shemetova had done wrong, Kim replied that "she is a missionary and violated the law". He then hung up the phone.

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Court verdict ordered the destruction of Bibles

Six Baptists who led Sunday worship in an old people's home near Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent face criminal and administrative charges after an "anti-terror operation" against their service, Baptists told Forum 18 News Service. Asked why the authorities halted the service and harassed participants, deputy police chief Major Sofar Fayziyev – who took part in the raid – told Forum 18: "They could not produce any proof that they had authorisation for their activity." Elsewhere, three Baptists were fined after police raided a Sunday morning church service. As happens frequently, the court verdict ordered the destruction of Bibles and other confiscated Christian literature. And Judge Abdumumin Rahimov who handed a massive fine to a young resident of Navoi for transporting Jehovah's Witness literature insists that "the main purpose of the punishment is not revenge against the offender, but teaching him to respect the law".

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Government Shuts Down Human Rights Watch Office

On June 9, 2011, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan granted the Ministry of Justice's petition to liquidate Human Rights Watch's Tashkent office registration. The hearing was brought forward from a later date without notice and the court deliberated for only a few minutes before granting the petition. There is no appeal. The legal ruling follows years of Uzbek government obstruction of Human Rights Watch's access to the country, including through denial of visas and accreditation to Human Rights Watch staff, most recently researcher Steve Swerdlow in December 2010. This obstruction amounted to the effective expulsion of Human Rights Watch from Uzbekistan, which we announced in March.

The Uzbek government continues its interference with independent civil society and its harassment of activists. Uzbekistan's international partners should make clear such interference and harassment are unacceptable, and impose concrete policy consequences for the government's continued failure to uphold the rights to association, assembly, and expression, and for its atrocious human rights record in general.
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(London) - The Uzbek government has forced Human Rights Watch to close its Uzbekistan office, Human Rights Watch said today. For years the government has obstructed the organization's work by denying visas and work accreditation to staff, and has now moved to liquidate its office registration, forcing Human Rights Watch to end its presence in Tashkent after 15 years.

"With the expulsion of Human Rights Watch, the Uzbek government sends a clear message that it isn't willing to tolerate critical scrutiny of its human rights record," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But let me be clear, too: we aren't going to be silenced by this. We are as committed as ever to report on abuses in Uzbekistan."

On March 10, 2011, Human Rights Watch received information from the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan that the Justice Ministry had moved to liquidate the organization's office in Tashkent, with a first hearing apparently set for March 15. Human Rights Watch has been registered in Uzbekistan since 1996. Uzbek authorities have provided no information about the alleged grounds for the liquidation proceeding.

The Uzbek government had previously denied work accreditation to Human Rights Watch's Uzbekistan researcher, Steve Swerdlow, a decision conveyed in a letter handed to him by the Justice Ministry on Christmas Eve 2010. The letter states that the Ministry denied accreditation to Swerdlow because of Human Rights Watch's "established practice" of "ignoring Uzbekistan's national legislation" and because Swerdlow "lacks experience cooperating with Uzbekistan" and "working in the region as a whole." The letter does not specify what laws Human Rights Watch allegedly violated.

"Uzbek government claims that we ignore Uzbek legislation and ‘lack experience in the region' have been used repeatedly to deny accreditation to our staff," Roth said. "These claims are implausible and a transparently deceitful pretext to prevent us from maintaining a presence in the country."

Since 2004, the Uzbek government has interfered with the work of Human Rights Watch by denying or severely delaying visas and/or accreditation to every Human Rights Watch representative in Tashkent, and even threatened criminal charges against one staff member. The government has made it impossible for the organization to maintain a regular presence in the country since July 2008, when authorities denied accreditation to its former representative and then barred him from the country on the grounds that he "did not understand Uzbek culture or traditions." Swerdlow was allowed access to the country for only two months in 2010 before being denied work accreditation.

In the last two-and- a-half years, Uzbek authorities have further obstructed Human Rights Watch's attempts to work in Uzbekistan. In July 2009, they deported a Human Rights Watch research consultant upon her arrival in Tashkent. In December 2009, a Human Rights Watch researcher was the subject of a violent attack in the town of Karshi, which appeared to have been orchestrated by the authorities. Following the attack, police detained her and then expelled her from the city. Police in Karshi and Margilan also detained human rights defenders to prevent them from meeting with her.

Human Rights Watch's expulsion comes during a deepening human rights crisis in Uzbekistan. Well over a dozen human rights and political activists and independent journalists are in prison, torture and ill-treatment in the criminal justice system are systematic, and serious violations go unpunished. Over the last seven years, the Uzbek government has expelled nearly every international nongovernmental organization from the country. It also has consistently denied access to independent human rights monitors, such as United Nations special rapporteurs, no fewer than eight of whom have longstanding requests for invitation pending.

"The Uzbek government's persistent refusal to allow independent rights groups to carry out our work exacerbates the already dire human rights situation in the country, allowing severe abuses to go unreported, and further isolating the country's courageous and beleaguered human rights community," Roth said.

Human Rights Watch's expulsion from Tashkent also comes at a time of renewed engagement between Uzbekistan and the European Union. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso recently hosted the Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, a move that was widely criticized by human rights activists and the media. While the EU has repeatedly stated that enhanced relations are contingent on progress on human rights, it has not followed through with any known policy consequences in response to Uzbekistan's consistent failure to make concrete, demonstrable progress with respect to the EU's human rights criteria.

The United States, too, has in recent years pursued an active policy of re-engagement with Tashkent. It maintains a congressionally mandated visa ban against Uzbek officials linked to serious human rights abuses, but its relationship with Uzbekistan is dominated by the Defense Department, which uses routes through Uzbekistan as part of the Northern Distribution Network to supply forces in Afghanistan. With the exception of  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's strong remarks during her December visit to Tashkent underscoring Uzbekistan's need to "translate words into practice" to improve its human rights record, the United States has made few public statements on rampant human rights violations in Uzbekistan.

Human Rights Watch called on the United States, and the EU and its member states  to  publicly condemn the Uzbek government's expulsion of Human Rights Watch and overall to pursue a more robust human rights policy with Tashkent.

"Uzbekistan has now unambiguously joined a short list of repressive governments that prevent Human Rights Watch from carrying out our work on the ground," Roth said. "Tashkent has apparently calculated that brutalizing the population and stonewalling international reporting are cost-free. The EU and the US need to prove this cynical calculus wrong and make sure human rights abuses will be noticed and carry clear consequences."

Human Rights Watch urged the Uzbek government to end the crackdown on civil society immediately and allow independent domestic and international human rights groups to operate without government interference. It should register groups that remain unregistered, have been liquidated or otherwise forced to stop working in Uzbekistan, and issue visas and accreditation for staff of international nongovernmental organizations.

Human Rights Watch remains committed to investigating human rights abuses in Uzbekistan and communicating its concerns to the Uzbek government.

The Human Rights Situation in Uzbekistan
The Uzbek government's human rights record is abysmal. Torture and ill-treatment are systematic throughout the criminal justice system. At least 13 human rights activists are in prison on fabricated charges, many of them in poor health. Other activists face threats, harassment, and live in fear of prosecution. The government severely restricts freedom of expression, and independent journalists are subject to crippling criminal defamation cases, which carry the prospect of jail time and huge fines. Many independent lawyers, especially those who took on politically sensitive cases, have been punitively disbarred. Independent Muslims and members of Christian communities are targets of repeated government repression.

Despite a speech  by Karimov to both houses of Parliament at the end of 2010, citing the need to strengthen civil society and the media environment, in practice Uzbekistan's citizens  are denied even the most basic civil and political rights, such as the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

Uzbek authorities have also ignored all calls for an independent investigation into the 2005 Andijan massacre, when authorities shot and killed hundreds of protesters, most of them unarmed. The government continues to persecute and harass witnesses to the massacre and families of Andijan refugees.

Torture and Ill-Treatment
Torture in Uzbekistan is widespread and systematic in all stages of the criminal justice system, and impunity for torture is the norm. Police and security agents use torture and ill-treatment to coerce detainees to implicate themselves or others, and confessions obtained under torture are often the sole basis for convictions. Judges routinely fail to investigate torture allegations that defendants make when they appear before the court. Methods commonly used include beatings with truncheons, electric shock, hanging by wrists and ankles, rape and sexual humiliation, asphyxiation with plastic bags and gas masks, and threats of physical harm to relatives.

One prominent defense lawyer in Tashkent who has represented hundreds of criminal defendants told Human Rights Watch in October 2010:

"Based on the clients I visit in pre-trial detention facilities, I believe torture and ill-treatment have increased over the past several years.  The fact is, there is simply no one left to witness what is happening and communicate it to the world."

The desperation about torture among the clients I see now is near complete. I often meet clients who have clearly been ill-treated, with suspicious marks on their bodies in police custody. But when I see them in the interrogation room, they are so afraid of retribution and further torture by officers, and so convinced that the courts will not step in to end the practice, they ask me not even to raise the issue. They know that a lawyer may complain about torture to the court. But in the end it is he as a suspect who has to remain in the jail alone with the police officers, not the lawyer or the judge.

UN human rights bodies have found that torture is "systematic" and "routine" in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government has failed to meaningfully carry out recommendations to combat torture made by these bodies, including most comprehensively by the UN special rapporteur on torture following his 2002 visit to the country. The Uzbek government routinely likes to tout measures such as recent habeas corpus amendments as evidence of progress on the issue of torture, but such measures have failed to protect detainees from torture or to end impunity for the practice.

In a key example, Human Rights Watch research revealed that the habeas corpus (judicial review of detention), amendments, introduced in January 2008, do not protect the rights of defendants or prevent torture and ill-treatment in pre-trial detention. Uzbek courts order the detention of suspects based on instructions from prosecutors and investigators and approve requests for arrest warrants in virtually every case. The operative legal standard does not allow courts to question the legality of a person's detention.  Courts do not use habeas corpus hearings to examine allegations of torture or ill-treatment in custody; nor does a pre-trial detainee have the right to request periodically that a court review his or her detention within a reasonable time.  Pre-trial detainees are routinely denied access to counsel at critical stages of the investigation, including interrogation and the habeas corpus hearing itself, which is a closed proceeding.  One lawyer told Human Rights Watch:

"I have never seen a single judge who did not approve a request for an individual's detention in the two years since the habeas reforms were adopted. The habeas corpus reforms stipulate that a criminal suspect must be presented to the court to approve his or her detention within 72 hours.... The problem, however, is that in so many cases people are first detained on administrative charges under which they can be held for 15 days, and during those 15 days the authorities can ill-treat and torture them very easily. Once the authorities have extracted the necessary confessions, they can then bring criminal charges, which trigger the habeas corpus hearing."

In January 2009, just one year after habeas reform was introduced, the power to license attorneys was transferred from independent bar associations to the Justice Ministry. The move seriously compromised the independence of the criminal defense bar and resulted in the disbarment of numerous independent attorneys, several of whom represented human rights defenders who are currently imprisoned. Ruhiddin Komilov, a well known lawyer who was disbarred in 2009, told Human Rights Watch:

"In the past, I used to take on politically sensitive cases, such as human rights activists and those accused by the government of being extremists. I did this to fulfill my duty as a lawyer to provide a defense to any person who truly needed it. If someone comes to you and asks for your legal help, how can you turn them away?  But the government does not want there to be lawyers who will stand up and speak out about the violation of human rights of their clients; they only want to see lawyers who will close their eyes to systematic violations of their clients' due process rights."

Torture of "Gulom G."
Nodira N. [not her real name], the mother of a teenage boy who was tortured in pre-trial detention in November 2010, told Human Rights Watch that  police had tortured her son to coerce him to sign a confession:

"On November 25, 2010 I saw my son at the police station. I was bringing him food and clothing and was allowed to have 10 minutes with him at about 6 or 7 p.m. I saw a long bruise across his neck left by the gas mask. He told me that several officers had forced him to confess to having committed theft. They put cellophane over his head and then put a gas mask on him. He couldn't breathe and eventually signed the confession. "They beat me and accused me of theft and I had to confess to it," he told me."

Torture of "Bakhtiyor B."
Human Rights Watch interviewed Ziyoda Z. [not her real name], who recently visited her husband Bakhtiyor B., who is serving a 17-year prison sentence for alleged membership in "an illegal religious or extremist organization" and for "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order," among other charges. Ziyoda Z. described her June 2010 visit to her husband:

"When I went to visit him, I started to cry as they brought him out. He was emaciated and I could see that fingernails were missing from two of his fingers and two of his feet. I asked him why his nails were gone. There were guards monitoring our prison visit so at first he just stayed silent. But he looked at me making clear that they had been purposely ripped out. I noticed there were bruises all over his legs, knees, and shoulders. He couldn't sit straight - as if his shoulder had been dislocated.

He found a way to tell me later that sometimes other prisoners are assigned to work with him at the brick factory by prison authorities. These are common criminals, not religious prisoners. He says ...that when he becomes too tired ...he is beaten with shovels [by other prisoners at the instigation of the authorities], then revived with water after he passes out, and beaten again. He told me, "'I will probably not live through this.'"

Torture of "Utkur U."
Human Rights Watch interviewed Rayhon R. [not her real name], wife of Utkur U., currently serving a 16-year prison sentence on similar charges. Utkur U. earlier reported to his wife that prison guards would sometimes hit or kick him in his kidneys or other parts of the body. More recently, however, he told her that the abuse comes at the hands of fellow prisoners, orchestrated by prison authorities. After seeing her husband in July 2010, Rayhon R. told Human Rights Watch:

"Utkur is the only prisoner among his group convicted of "anti-constitutional activity," and [he] is constantly harassed by the eight other prisoners in his cell. He told me how other prisoners made him get into the "thirteenth position." The prisoners were given handcuffs, probably by the guards, and handcuffed him in the shape of a cross on the bars of the prison cell. Using the handcuffs he was forced to stand up in the form of a cross for days. He was not let down even to go to the bathroom and was repeatedly beaten by other prisoners. He told me, "'In order to get myself out of the thirteenth position, I started banging my head against the metal bars until I began to bleed. The other prisoners put a hat on my head to prevent me from doing this. It was only when I agreed not to read namaz [ritual chanting of Islamic prayers] that they set me free.'"

Crackdown on Civil Society and Human Rights Defenders
The Uzbek government has long obstructed the work of domestic and international organizations in the country, refusing to register local independent groups and subjecting activists to harassment and persecution. There is only one active registered independent domestic human rights organization, and those operating without registration are even more vulnerable to government harassment.

Beginning in 2004, the government expelled or forced the closure of numerous international organizations and media outlets, including the Open Society Institute, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,Internews, Freedom House, Counterpart International, the American Bar Association, and many others. None of the organizations that were forced to end their operations have resumed their activities in Uzbekistan.

In the wake of the May 2005 Andijan massacre, Uzbek authorities unleashed a fierce crackdown on domestic civil society groups, imprisoning dozens of human rights defenders, independent journalists, and political activists for speaking out about the Andijan events and calling for accountability for the killings.

Local civil society activism remains severely restricted, and authorities regularly detain and threaten to prosecute human rights defenders, independent journalists, and other activists for their peaceful activism. The authorities do not tolerate dissent of any kind, and frequently place activists under surveillance and subject them to arbitrary detention and de facto house arrest. The authorities also have denied some human rights activists exit visas to prevent them from traveling abroad. Some defenders have felt compelled to stop their work or flee the country, fearing persecution.

The 13 human rights activists known to be in prison for no reason other than legitimate human rights work are: Solijon Abdurakhmanov, Azam Formonov, Nosim Isakov, Gaibullo Jalilov, Alisher Karamatov, Jamshid Karimov, Norboi Kholjigitov, Rasul Khudainasarov, Ganihon Mamatkhanov, Habibulla Okpulatov, Yuldash Rasulov, Dilmurod Saidov, and Akzam Turgunov. Other political and civic activists, including the dissident poetYusuf Jumaev, are likewise serving sentences on politically motivated charges.

Human Rights Watch has received reports from relatives of many imprisoned human rights defenders that they are in poor health, including suffering severe weight loss and losing their teeth due to poor nourishment. Human Rights Watch has credible information that at least seven rights defenders have been ill-treated or subjected to torture in custody.

Authorities routinely target rights defenders already serving long prison sentences with additional punitive measures, such as accusing them of violating prison regulations to make them ineligible for the government's annual amnesty. At least two of them have been forced to serve additional prison time. In September 2009 Habibullo Okpulatov, who was serving a four-year sentence (reduced from six years under amnesty) and was due to be released from prison, was sentenced to an additional three years and eight days  for alleged violations of prison regulations.  Gaibullo Jalilov, who is serving a nine-year sentence, was re-sentenced to 11 years, one month, and five days, on new criminal charges in a flawed proceeding in August 2010, eight months after his initial conviction on bogus charges.

In a recent example of a rights activist convicted on politically motivated criminal charges, the Hamzin District Criminal Court on January 24 convicted Tatyana Dovlatova on fabricated criminal charges of hooliganism (article 277, part 2 of the Uzbek Criminal Code). Authorities did not inform Dovlatova when her final hearing was taking place, denying her the right to make a closing statement in her own defense and convicting her in absentia. She was immediately given an amnesty but her criminal conviction stands.

There are also recent examples of Uzbek authorities' intolerance of public dissent.  On November 27, two weeks after President Karimov gave a speech referring to the existence of a competitive, multi-party system in Uzbekistan, a group of activists formed a new social-democratic political party called The People's Interests. Several days after the group's members met to discuss their policies, police summoned them, questioned them for several hours, and fingerprinted them.

On the morning of December 6, three activists, Abdullo Tojiboi-Ugli, Dmitrii Tikhonov, and Viktoriya Bozhenova, gathered at Mustaqillik (Independence) Square in Tashkent to express human rights concerns. A fourth activist, Vladimir Husainov was present to monitor the protest. Tikhonov described to Human Rights Watch how he and the others were forced to end their protest and that, though they left peacefully, they were arbitrarily detained:

"We went out with our demands. We were able to stand there about 10 minutes, that's it, 10, maybe 15 minutes.  [Then] they told us to leave, so we rolled up our posters and left. They detained us after that.  The people [who detained us] were in civilian clothes and none showed us their documents...  They put us in a car and took us to the Yunusabad district police station." 

The four were held there until 5:30 or 6 p.m. and then transferred to the Yususabad District Court, where they were tried under article 201-1 of the Uzbek administrative code ("violation of the order of holding meetings, rallies, marches or demonstrations"). The court found the activists had violated article 201-1 and fined them between 60 and 70 times the monthly minimum wage (a total fine of approximately US$1,780-$2,080) each. Tikhonov told Human Rights Watch that their right to a fair hearing was violated. He said: "They didn't allow us lawyers, or allow us to review the case materials, or provide us with an interpreter [from Uzbek to Russian]."

Restrictions on Freedom of Expression
Uzbek authorities restrict both freedom of information and the freedom of expression. Websites containing information on sensitive issues or that are critical of the government are routinely blocked within Uzbekistan. The few independent journalists who continue to work in the country do so at great risk and are forced to self-censor due to harassment and threats of imprisonment. Human Rights Watch's expulsion from Uzbekistan should be seen as one of the government's latest attempts to silence critical and independent voices.

Over the last six months, Uzbek authorities persisted in using spurious criminal defamation charges to silence perceived government critics. On October 15, the Voice of America correspondent, Abdumalik Boboev, was convicted of defamation, insult, and preparation or dissemination of materials that threaten public security, and fined approximately US$11,000. In the same month, another journalist, Vladimir Berezovskii, was convicted of similar charges for articles published on the Vesti.uz website.

Boboev told Human Rights Watch: "My only aspiration is to work freely as a journalist, to accurately portray the realities of our society, and not face persecution as a result.  At the very least, I'd like to have confidence in the fact that one won't be killed or punished simply for telling the truth."

Persecution of "Independent" Muslims
The Uzbek authorities' unrelenting, multi-year campaign of arbitrary detention, arrest, torture and incarceration in grossly inhumane conditions, against Muslims who practice their faith outside state controls or belong to unregistered religious organizations, continues unabated.  Since the late 1990s, Human Rights Watch has documented the incarceration of thousands of independent Muslims for nonviolent offenses and the peaceful expression of their religious beliefs.

In November and December 2010, Human Rights Watch interviewed lawyers who represented people in Uzbekistan who had been detained and arrested on charges based on articles 159 ("attempt to overthrow the constitutional order") and 244 ("membership in an illegal religious or extremist organization") of the Uzbek Criminal Code, which are among the charges routinely used to sentence independent Muslims. In 2010 alone, at least 200 people were arrested or convicted on such charges.

One attorney who represented five defendants convicted in March 2010 on such charges told Human Rights Watch:

"A large group of men was detained for allegedly forming an unsanctioned religious organization. One was accused of being a "terrorist" for allegedly attending a Ramadan dinner. Directly following their arrest, I was contacted by some of their families and hired to represent some of the men. The authorities would not give me access to my clients until three days after their arrest! The first day I went to the police department to see my clients I waited for five hours and presented my order [attorney-client retainer agreement] but the guards still would not let me in. I simply kept coming back and refused to leave the building until they let me in and I finally got inside after three days - after the habeas corpus hearing approving their detention for a five-month period had occurred.

I undressed one of my clients and realized he had been beaten in places where wounds were less likely to show up. He was shaking and told me that officers had hit him with rubber sticks (dubinki) on the top of his head and hit his legs with plastic water bottles. I later heard that all the men in the group had been treated this way."

Police also routinely fail to notify families of religious detainees of their relatives' whereabouts. Refusing to acknowledge the detention of an individual or reveal the whereabouts of a person who has been deprived of liberty constitutes an enforced disappearance under international law, a serious human rights violation subject to criminal prosecution.

Umida U. [not her real name] told Human Rights Watch that she spent five days searching for her sons after they were detained in Karshi in October 2010:

"I looked for them myself.... First I visited the hospital and also the morgue .... We looked everywhere. Then we went to the police... "They're not here. Your sons aren't here," they said. I went to the SNB [National Security Service]. They said my sons weren't there. Then after five days, was there [at the SNB] crying and started to argue with them, and then they told me that my sons were at the city police station."

In a disturbing trend prisoners charged with "religious extremism" also seem to be targeted by prison authorities, who try to keep them incarcerated beyond their original sentences. The authorities frequently initiate new criminal proceedings for alleged violations of prison regulations, such as failure to shave their beards or disobeying orders of prison staff. Prisoners subjected to such proceedings are not afforded adequate due process rights and can easily end up with their prison sentences extended by three years or more.

Lack of Accountability for the Andijan Massacre
Since May 13, 2005, when government forces killed hundreds of mostly peaceful protestors who had gathered in Bobur square in Andijan to voice discontent about growing poverty and government repression, Human Rights Watch has  persistently called for accountability and justice for the victims. To date, however, no one has been held accountable for the victims' deaths, nor have the circumstances surrounding the massacre been clarified.

For close to six years, the Uzbek government has adamantly rejected numerous and repeated calls for an independent international inquiry into the Andijan events.

Furthermore, the authorities persist in persecuting anyone they suspect of having witnessed the atrocities. Local authorities intimidate and harass families of Andijan survivors who have sought refuge abroad. Police subject them to constant surveillance, call them for questioning, and have threatened them with criminal charges or home confiscation. School officials also publicly humiliate refugees' children.

Local authorities pressure those who fled the massacre and ensuing crackdown to return to Uzbekistan, giving relatives assurances that no harm will come to them. Yet, when Diloram Abdukodirova, a refugee who decided to return to Uzbekistan, did so in January 2010, she was promptly detained. On April 30, Abdukodirova was sentenced to 10 years and two months in prison for illegal border crossing and anti-constitutional activity. Abdukodirova appeared at one court hearing with bruises on her face, indicating possible ill-treatment in custody.

"No need to import Bibles"?

At a January hearing in her absence, Natalya Pitirimova, Accountant of the Bible Society of Uzbekistan, was fined for violating procedures over the import of two shipments of Bibles and Children's Bibles in 2008 and 2010. The state Religious Affairs Committee, which operates Uzbekistan's strict prior compulsory censorship of all religious literature, has refused to release the Bibles, despite successive appeals from Christian churches. Judge Dilshod Suleymanov also ordered that the Bible Society return the shipments - totalling nearly 15,000 copies - to Russia at its own cost. The judge claimed to Forum 18 News Service that the "Bible Society did not present requests on time to the Religious Affairs Committee from churches in Uzbekistan that they need the literature, and subsequently as time passed this violated customs procedures." Justice Ministry officials told the Bible Society "there is no need to import Bibles into Uzbekistan since there's an electronic version on the internet."

Source

Prisoner of conscience "released but not free"

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Former prisoner of conscience Dmitry Shestakov, who was recently released from a four-year jail sentence continues to be placed by Uzbekistan under the severe restrictions of 'administrative supervision', Forum 18 News Service has learned. Among the restrictions Shestakov faces he has to for one year report to police in person almost every week, he may not be outside his home between 21.00 in the evening and 06.00 in the morning, he may not leave his home town without written police permission, and he cannot visit public places such as restaurants. The term of administrative supervision can be extended, and the punishments for breaking the supervision regime range up to imprisonment for four years. The authorities have refused to explain the reason for the restrictions to Forum 18. "He was released from prison but is not free," a local Protestant complained. Current known long and short-term prisoners of conscience jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief are Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants. The latest two short-term prisoners of conscience are two Baptists jailed for distributing religious literature.
 
Former prisoner of conscience Dmitry Shestakov, who was recently released from a four-year jail sentence continues to be under severe restrictions, Forum 18 News Service has learned. For one year Shestakov has to report to police in person almost every week, may not be outside his home between 21.00 in the evening and 06.00 in the morning, and cannot visit places where alcohol is served such as restaurants. "He was released from prison but is not free," one Protestant complained to Forum 18. Shestakov is the Pastor of an officially registered Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in the eastern city of Andijan [Andijon], who was imprisoned for exercising his right to freedom of religion or belief. Uzbek authorities are unwilling to explain to Forum 18 why they have placed Shestakov under these restrictions.

Shestakov was released on 21 January from Prison No. 29 in Navoi [Nawoiy], in central Uzbekistan, after a four-year sentence for allegedly violating Criminal Code articles:

- 216 ("Illegal establishment or reactivation of illegal public associations or religious organisations, as well as active participation in their activities");

- and 244-1 Part 2 ("Any form of dissemination of information and materials containing ideas of religious extremism, separatism, and fundamentalism, calls for pogroms or violent eviction of individuals, or aimed at creating a panic among the population, as well as the use of religion in purposes of breach of civil concord, dissemination of calumnious and destabilizing fabrications, and committing other acts aimed against the established rules of conduct in society and of public order").

He was sentenced, after an apparently rigged trial, in March 2007 to four years in an open work camp (see F18News 23 March 2007 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=935). The sentence was subsequently harshened to imprisonment in a labour camp where Jehovah's Witness prisoners of conscience are also held (see F18News 27 June 2007 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=982).

NSS secret police presence at release

A large number of prison officials and National Security Service (NSS) secret police in plain clothes were present when Shestakov was released, and they refused to allow his lawyer to be present. Officials filmed the release on a video camera. Shestakov walked out of the prison gates in prison clothes – a dark jacket, dark trousers, and dark cap – as his wife and three daughters met him. Apart from two members of his church, no people from other churches were present, for fear of state reprisals. His family and church members were all crying for joy at the release.

Mother's death

Shestakov's mother had a stroke and was paralysed after his arrest. On his way home after his release Shestakov visited her, although she was in a coma when he saw her. "Soon after Shestakov's visit she died on 24 January", a Protestant told Forum 18. Shestakov was, Forum 18 understands, allowed by police to bury his mother.

New convert gets 10 years

Tohar Haydarov is a member of an unregistered Baptist church in the town of Gulistan. According to the members of his church, Tohar’s relatives asked local police in January to help them force Tohar to return to Islam. The police put great physical pressure on Tohar to deny Jesus, but he refused to do so.

On 18 January 2010 he was arrested and charged with producing and storing drugs after drugs were found in his pockets and in his apartment. Three days later, Tohar made a brief court appearance. Church members reported that he could hardly walk and showed signs of having been badly beaten.

At a court hearing on 4 March, church members were not allowed to testify on Tohar’s behalf and his lawyer was not allowed into the courtroom. Tohar’s father (72) attended the hearing to support his son. The next day, he was found dead in the family’s garage. Police concluded that he died by accidentally falling onto an electric heater. Five days later, Tohar was convicted of manufacturing and possessing drugs and sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

His fellow believers insist that the case has been fabricated and that the police planted the drugs on him. Several acquaintances have supplied written statements to the police, claiming his innocence.

Tohar has since been transferred to a labour camp in Qarshi, 400km from his hometown. He is preparing to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Source

More different sources:
Forum 18, Prisoner Alert, The Voice of the Martyrs (Canada)

Tohar's verdict 

Bible and Mel Gibson film banned

Nurulla Zhamolov, the senior religious affairs official for the Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] Autonomous Republic of north-western Uzbekistan, has banned specific religious books and films confiscated from religious believers on at least three occasions known to Forum 18 News Service in 2009. The confiscations happened during police and National Security Service (NSS) secret police raids. Among works Zhamolov has "banned for import, distribution or use in teaching on the territory of the Republic of Karakalpakstan" are the Bible, a hymn book, a Bible Encyclopaedia, a Bible dictionary, a children's Bible, and the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson, although this has legally been shown in cinemas in the capital Tashkent.

The bans were set out in "expert analyses" provided for court hearings of local Protestants, and revealed in court documents and a prosecutor's office letter seen by Forum 18. Forum 18 has been unable to obtain copies of Zhamolov's "expert analyses".

The authorities in Karakalpakstan routinely confiscate religious literature they find in the homes of religious believers during raids. It remains unclear what further activity the authorities will undertake in the wake of the bans on specific works.

It also remains unclear whether Zhamolov's ban on the Bible includes a ban on the Russian-language Synodal version, a nineteenth-century translation widely used not only among Russian-speaking Protestants but by the Russian Orthodox for private reading outside church services (which are in Church Slavonic).

Forum 18 tried to find out from Zhamolov of the Religious Affairs Committee why peaceful religious communities have been raided, why peaceful religious believers have been detained and fined, why religious literature has been confiscated and why he has issued "expert analyses" banning the import, distribution and use of named religious books in Karakalpakstan. However, the man who answered his phone on 20 May told Forum 18 it was a wrong number. Subsequent calls went unanswered.

Officials in the Uzbek capital Tashkent were likewise unwilling to talk about the raids, the confiscation of religious literature or state censorship of religious literature. The official who answered the phone at the government's National Human Rights Centre of Uzbekistan told Forum 18 on 20 May that its director Akmal Saidov and deputy director Akhmat Ismailov were out of the office, while Ikrom Saipov, who heads the department dealing with citizens' complaints, was on leave.

Asked what the Human Rights Centre has done to defend the religious freedom of Uzbekistan's residents, the official – who would not give his name – responded: "I cannot provide any further information. Come to our Centre and you can read our last annual report in our library." Asked whether the report is available on the internet, he responded: "I'm afraid not."

The official who answered the phone on 20 May of the government's Religious Affairs Committee in Tashkent – who gave his name as Murat – told Forum 18 he was a trainee and was unable to answer any questions. He said no other Committee official was in the office.

Source

A wave of arrests and searches

A court in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent has given a 15-day prison term to Pavel Nenno, a deacon of a registered Baptist Church, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Nenno was prosecuted after a raid involving the NSS secret police on his home, where he was "feeding neglected children from poor families" Protestants told Forum 18. In a separate case, 17 people associated with a registered Bukhara Full Gospel church were each fined 100 times the minimum monthly salary, following a raid on a birthday party for a church member. The church had previously been warned for religious activity away from its legal address. In both cases, children's religious activity was identified by the authorities as a factor in their harsh sentences. Asked by Forum 18 why she was opposed to children attending church, one Bukhara headteacher replied that "I want our children to develop." Pavel Peichev, General Secretary of the Uzbek Baptist Union, has published an open letter condemning "increased persecution of believers in all regions" and "a wave of arrests and searches".

Source

Police continue to target Protestants

Following the jailing for four years of Protestant Pastor Dmitry Shestakov, Pentecostal Christian Salavat Serikbayev was today (10 May) in Uzbekistan given a two-year suspended jail sentence for teaching religion illegally, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Serikbayev has now been allowed home, but he could be jailed if he commits any further "crime," such as any religious activity the authorities do not like. He was also banned from travelling abroad and the court ordered that 20 per cent of any salary he earns be taken from him. Serikbayev does not have a job, and lives in a town with about 80 per cent unemployment. Last month, another Protestant was given a fine totalling more than most people in his home city earn in a year. Police continue to target Protestants, recently detaining six Christian women and one man who were celebrating a birthday in a private home. All seven people were handcuffed and detained overnight, Forum 18 has learnt, some being beaten up by police.

Source

Internal exile for Protestant pastor

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov has today (9 March) been sentenced to four years' exile in an open work camp within Uzbekistan for his religious activity, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Shestakov maintained his innocence throughout the trial. During his final speech, Forum 18 learnt, he told the court that despite the tears of his wife and children he forgives those who have taken action against him. Shestakov's friends have stated that there were numerous irregularities in the trial, including: an expert analysis of his sermons being illegally conducted by an Andijan University professor; forgery of documents by the Prosecutor's Office; false prosecution claims of religious services being conducted in a property not belonging to a registered religious organisation; and Pastor Shestakov being illegally charged under a Criminal Code article that was not in force when the criminal case against Shestakov was launched. Before the trial, Uzbek state-run media tried to smear Shestakov and his church.

The regional criminal court in the Fergana Valley city of Andijan [Andijon] today (9 March) sentenced local Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov to four years' exile in an open work camp within the country for his religious activity, sources have told Forum 18 News Service. The place of exile has not been determined. The prosecutor had called for a five-year prison sentence. Shestakov maintained his innocence throughout the trial. During his final speech, he told the court that despite the tears of his wife and children he forgives those who have taken action against him, sources told Forum 18. It appears that one of the three charges against him was withdrawn during the trial. The full written verdict will not be handed to the defence for another few days. At the beginning of the trial, Shestakov was charged under three articles of the Criminal Code: Article 216 ("illegal organisation of social or religious organisations", which carries a maximum five year prison term), Article 156, part 2 ("inciting ethnic, racial or religious hatred", which carries a prison term of between five and ten years) and Article 244-1, part 2 ("distributing materials containing ideas of religious extremism", which carries a maximum five year prison term). The indictment was drawn up by Senior Investigator Kamolitdin Zulfiev. Normally in cases with multiple charges, judges impose concurrent sentences, so those found guilty serve the longest of the prison terms handed down, although judges do have the right to order the prison terms to be served consecutively. Pastor Shestakov's trial began in Andijan on 19 February, but several subsequent hearings were delayed because his own lawyer was ill. Despite a medical certificate from Shestakov's lawyer that he was ill - which under Uzbek law should have led to the postponement of the hearing - a trial session was held on 28 February with a state-appointed lawyer. This lawyer reportedly did nothing to defend Shestakov.  Shestakov had been due to be sentenced on 1 March (see F18News 28 February 2007http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=923), but his own lawyer was able to present further arguments in his favour which led to the continuation of the case. Shestakov's friends point to what they regard as numerous inconsistencies in the way prosecutors handled the case. They insist that an expert analysis of his sermons – recordings of which were confiscated during a search of his home in June 2006 – was illegal as it was conducted by a professor from Andijan University. According to an April 2004 decree from the Cabinet of Ministers, only the government's Religious Affairs Committee is authorised to conduct such analyses. There are also claims that the Prosecutor's Office forged documents to incriminate Shestakov.  His friends also refute another of the prosecutor's accusations - that Shestakov conducted religious services on property that did not belong to a registered religious organisation. They cite a notarised document from December 2003 recording the house where services were held as the property of the registered Andijan Full Gospel church. They also point to an October 2004 Full Gospel document authorising Shestakov to lead services at the property. Shestakov's friends also complain that, given that the criminal case against him was launched on 10 June 2006, his charge under Article 156 part 1 was illegally changed to Article 156 part 2, a provision that was introduced into the Criminal Code only twelve days later and which does not have retroactive force. In the run up to the trial, Uzbek state-run media tried to smear Shestakov and his Full Gospel church claiming, for example, that "he abused alcohol and was dependent on drugs and now he presents himself as pastor David". Such allegations were picked up in early March by internet news agencies in Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Official harassment of Shestakov – who faced official warnings for his "illegal" religious activity in 1997 and 2004 – was stepped up in May 2006, apparently in reaction to the conversion to Christianity of some ethnic Uzbeks. Neither the chief public prosecutor of Andijan, Bekmukhadam Akhmedaliev, who initiated the case, nor officials of the government's Religious Affairs Committee in the capital Tashkent have been prepared to comment to Forum 18 on the prosecution of Shestakov (see F18News 14 February 2007http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=911). Meanwhile, Protestant sources who preferred not to be identified for fear of reprisals have told Forum 18 that about ten police secret police officers armed with video-cameras raided a Pentecostal church's Sunday worship service in the southern city of Karshi [Qarshi] on 25 February. They began to film the service without seeking the approval of the worshippers but, as sources told Forum 18, Pastor Sergei Shandyvayev "decided not to panic and continued the worship". After the congregation finished the service, police and secret police officers sealed the entrance door and recorded the names and addresses of all those who had attended and began interrogating them separately in different rooms. Officers tried to pressure them to reveal why they had become Christians and where the church received its money. Police also searched all the rooms and seized Christian literature and audio and video recordings. Officers cited the church's lack of state registration as the reason for the raid, although the church has sought registration in vain for seven years. Some church members were followed to their homes, where their families were then interrogated. Church members were told they would be summoned to the public prosecutor's office to face charges under the Code of Administrative Offences. However, Forum 18 has not heard that any hearings have taken place. On 1 March Pastor Shandyvayev was summoned and questioned for two hours, and officials told him all the confiscated literature had been sent for examination to the Religious Affairs Committee in Tashkent. In another case, two Pentecostals are on trial for their religious activity in Nukus, the capital of the Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] autonomous republic in north-western Uzbekistan. On 28 February and on following days, police came to the home of Makset Djabbabergenov in Nukus and also to the home of Salavat Serikbayev in the town of Muynak north of Nukus near the Aral Sea, but neither was at home. Both men face charges under Article 216 of the Criminal Code, which punishes "violating the law on religious organisations" with sentences of up to five years' imprisonment, while Serikbayev also faces charges under Article 244-2 of the Criminal Code, which punishes setting up, leading or membership of banned organisations with imprisonment of between five and twenty years. Their trial began in Nukus on 26 February – as did the trial of other local Protestants who face lesser charges under the Code of Administrative Offences – but none of the defendants attended (see F18News 22 February 2007 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=918). A second hearing was held on 5 March and sources say a third has been set for 12 March. On 8 March some of the Protestants were summoned to the Prosecutor's Office, where they were told a verdict on their case has been reached, though they were reportedly not told what it was. Serikbayev – who is married with five children – spent four months in prison in 1999 for his religious activity. More information from different sourses: Prisoner Alert, Open Doors, The Voice of the Martyrs,

Sunday morning a favoured time for raids

Sunday morning worship services have recently been a favoured time for police to raid Protestant churches, Forum 18 News Service has noted. On 24 September, one Baptist church in the capital Tashkent was raided mid-way through the sermon and two church members subsequently fined. On 1 October in the nearby town of Angren, nearly fifty members of a registered Pentecostal church were taken to the police station after their Sunday service was raided. On 8 October the same Tashkent Baptist church was again raided, as was a Protestant church in the north-west of the country in Nukus, the capital of the Karakalpakstan [Qorakalpoghiston]

The Karakalpak authorities have long adopted a harsher policy towards religious minorities than the authorities elsewhere in Uzbekistan. The Karakalpak ordinary police and local branch of the National Security Service (NSS) secret police regularly conduct raids on Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses. On 8 October, 25 Protestants were arrested at the end of their Sunday church service in Nukus, Protestant sources told Forum 18. Police came and filmed the church members, then took them all to the police station.

Zhamolov admitted that all the Protestant churches in Karakalpakstan have been closed down. "Currently, apart from the mosques, there is only one Orthodox church functioning on Karakalpak territory," he told Forum 18. "That means that the Protestants who were reportedly arrested on 8 October were acting illegally. However, I have not heard anything about the incident you speak of."

Protestants are also experiencing persecution in other parts of Uzbekistan. On 1 October, a group of police officers in the town of Angren, 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Tashkent, burst into the officially registered Pentecostal church during its Sunday service and arrested 47 people. Officials are now gathering documentation to charge the church's pastor Askhad Mustafin under article 240 ("violation of the law on religious organisations") and Article 241 ("violation of the procedure for teaching religion") of the Administrative Code.

Forum 18 was unable to find out why Pastor Mustafin and the church are being targeted. The telephone of Angren's police chief went unanswered on 16 October despite Forum 18's repeated attempts to reach him. Mustafin was fined under Article 240 in June 2005 for leading services in his registered church (see F18News 17 June 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=588).

The congregation in Tashkent of the Council of Churches Baptists, who refuse on principle to register with the authorities in any of the former Soviet republics, is facing renewed pressure. About 12 officers from the city's Khamza district police – among them the deputy head of the local Counter-terrorism Department, S. Isakov - burst into the Sunday morning service during the sermon on 24 September. Other police officers stood outside smoking. "The intruders took photographs and tried to go into all the rooms of the church," church members told Forum 18 from Tashkent on 25 September. "After the service they blocked the exit and allowed through only the elderly and mothers with children."

Police put thirteen church members – including teenage children - on a police bus and took them to the local station. There, five were summoned to an office, photographed, had their personal details recorded and pressured to write statements. "They were warned that services and the Christian library are being undertaken illegally and next time they are undertaken criminal cases will be launched," church members reported. "They threatened to post a police unit by the prayer house if we do not register the church." Unlicensed religious activity is – against international human rights standards – a criminal offence in Uzbekistan.

Igor Voloshin, Mikhail Goryachev and Larisa Lankina were ordered to appear at the police station the following day, where an administrative court fined Voloshin and Goryacheva 21,600 sums (118 Norwegian Kroner, 14 Euros or 18 US Dollars) each under Article 240 of Uzbekistan's Administrative Code, which punishes "violation of the law on religious organisations".

At 11.30 am on 8 October, the Baptist church's Sunday morning service was again raided by a group of district police officers, who arrested seven church members. The police are now gathering documentation for a prosecution under Article 240 and Article 241, which punishes "violation of the procedures for teaching religion" of the administrative code.

Source

The Andijan Massacre

In the early morning hours of May 13, 2005, gunmen attacked several government buildings in the city of Andijan, in eastern Uzbekistan, broke into the city prison to release 23 men who faced charges of religious extremism, and mobilized people to attend a protest on the city’s main square. Later that day, thousands of unarmed protesters gathered on the main square of their own will to vent grievances about poverty and government repression. At around 5:00 p.m., when Uzbek government forces sealed off the square, the protesters fled north on Cholpon Prospect, where they were ambushed by government forces. Hundreds of people were killed.

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