Uzbek Journalist Given 12-Year Jail Term
Uzbek Journalist Given 12-Year Jail Term
Human rights activists in Uzbekistan have condemned the latest court case against a freelance journalist and activists as a travesty of justice.
On July 30, the Talak district court in Samarkand region sentenced Dilmurod Sayid, a member of the Ezgulik human rights group, to 12 years of imprisonment. He was convicted under two criminal code articles covering extortion and forgery. He has rejected the accusations, calling them “lies and slander”.
Sayid was arrested in the capital Tashkent in February 2009, and charged with extorting money from one Asliddin Orinbayev, who heads a farm machinery pool in Samarkand region. Orinbayev told police he was approached by a woman called Marguba Juraeva, who asked him for the money on Sayid’s behalf. However, Juraeva subsequently withdrew her claim.
A local journalist who attended the trial says, “Investigator Suhrob Majidov openly told the journalist’s family that the case against Dilmurod had been brought on the orders of the authorities, and he had to pursue it.”
He added that some of the witnesses claimed they had been pressured to testify against Sayid. “For example, Saidullo Boymurodov, the head of a farmers’ association in Jambay district and a witness in the case, said he testified because the investigator asked him to.”
The Voice of Freedom website cited Abdurahmon Tashanov, a civil society activist and head of Ezgulik’s Tashkent branch, as saying “the verdict was delivered in camera, without the journalist’s relatives and lawyers being informed”.
Sayid is suffering from acute tuberculosis.
Media watchdogs in Uzbekistan think he was prosecuted because articles he has written have contained criticism of the regime.
A human rights activist in Samarkand said it was obvious from the very beginning that the authorities were trying to sentence Sayid to a long prison term.
Human rights activist Bahodir Namazov of the Tashkent-based Committee for Prisoners of Conscience said all criminal cases brought against human rights activists and journalists followed the same pattern, with the same objective – “to curb journalists’ activities by putting them in prison”.
Yelena Urlaeva of the Tashkent-based Human Rights Alliance said this latest conviction was another attempt by the Uzbek authorities to “crush freedom of speech outright” and punish reporters who write the truth.
“All these cases have been fabricated. It is a great shame there are never any acquittals,” she said.
Local commentators note the continuing detention of Solijon Abdurahmonov, given ten years last October; Uzbek opposition newspaper editor Muhammad Bekjonov still serving a 14-year sentence handed down in 1999; Yusuf Ruzimurodov, serving 15 years, Hurriyat newspaper freelkancer Gairat Meliboyev, given six-and-a-half years in prison; and Pop Tongi newspaper editor Ortikali Namazov.
Despite numerous public appeals, Jamshid Karimov, who wrote for IWPR and other outlets, is still being held in a mental hospital.
Since the policy is to use criminal law as a weapon against regime critics, there is little chance that investigations or trials can be fair, human rights experts say.
“The problem is that guilt is generally never proven,” said Surat Ikramov, head of the Tashkent-based Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists. “Like the cases of other human rights defenders and journalists, the one against Sayid does not hold water.”
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
On July 30, the Talak district court in Samarkand region sentenced Dilmurod Sayid, a member of the Ezgulik human rights group, to 12 years of imprisonment. He was convicted under two criminal code articles covering extortion and forgery. He has rejected the accusations, calling them “lies and slander”.
Sayid was arrested in the capital Tashkent in February 2009, and charged with extorting money from one Asliddin Orinbayev, who heads a farm machinery pool in Samarkand region. Orinbayev told police he was approached by a woman called Marguba Juraeva, who asked him for the money on Sayid’s behalf. However, Juraeva subsequently withdrew her claim.
A local journalist who attended the trial says, “Investigator Suhrob Majidov openly told the journalist’s family that the case against Dilmurod had been brought on the orders of the authorities, and he had to pursue it.”
He added that some of the witnesses claimed they had been pressured to testify against Sayid. “For example, Saidullo Boymurodov, the head of a farmers’ association in Jambay district and a witness in the case, said he testified because the investigator asked him to.”
The Voice of Freedom website cited Abdurahmon Tashanov, a civil society activist and head of Ezgulik’s Tashkent branch, as saying “the verdict was delivered in camera, without the journalist’s relatives and lawyers being informed”.
Sayid is suffering from acute tuberculosis.
Media watchdogs in Uzbekistan think he was prosecuted because articles he has written have contained criticism of the regime.
A human rights activist in Samarkand said it was obvious from the very beginning that the authorities were trying to sentence Sayid to a long prison term.
Human rights activist Bahodir Namazov of the Tashkent-based Committee for Prisoners of Conscience said all criminal cases brought against human rights activists and journalists followed the same pattern, with the same objective – “to curb journalists’ activities by putting them in prison”.
Yelena Urlaeva of the Tashkent-based Human Rights Alliance said this latest conviction was another attempt by the Uzbek authorities to “crush freedom of speech outright” and punish reporters who write the truth.
“All these cases have been fabricated. It is a great shame there are never any acquittals,” she said.
Local commentators note the continuing detention of Solijon Abdurahmonov, given ten years last October; Uzbek opposition newspaper editor Muhammad Bekjonov still serving a 14-year sentence handed down in 1999; Yusuf Ruzimurodov, serving 15 years, Hurriyat newspaper freelkancer Gairat Meliboyev, given six-and-a-half years in prison; and Pop Tongi newspaper editor Ortikali Namazov.
Despite numerous public appeals, Jamshid Karimov, who wrote for IWPR and other outlets, is still being held in a mental hospital.
Since the policy is to use criminal law as a weapon against regime critics, there is little chance that investigations or trials can be fair, human rights experts say.
“The problem is that guilt is generally never proven,” said Surat Ikramov, head of the Tashkent-based Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists. “Like the cases of other human rights defenders and journalists, the one against Sayid does not hold water.”
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
