In early March of this year, Mutabar Tadjibayeva, prominent human rights activist and head of the International human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club”, based in France, went to Geneva to participate in the ten-day International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH).

Also, during her visit to Switzerland, a human rights activist and several of her colleagues visited one of the most élite areas of Geneva – Cologny. The purpose of their visit to Cologny was to see the house of Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, at the address 7 Rue Prevote, Cologny, Geneva.

They wanted to see the house Ms. Karimova and to have a conversation with her about the situation in Uzbekistan and the problems related to human rights violations in the country. However, they failed to meet with her eldest daughter of president Islam Karimov.

Shortly after their visit to Gulnara Karimova’s house, the Geneva police began to search for Mutabar Tadjibayeva. The police claimed that the mission of Uzbekistan to the UN Geneva office, headed by Gulnara Karimova, filed a complaint against Mutabar Tadjibayeva and her colleagues. On the same day, the journalist from Geneva Andre Lorsch, who also was among those who visited the house of Gulnara Karimova, called the police at the request Mutabar Tadjibayeva. However, the police told the reporter that they would not give any information on the phone and asked Mutabar Tadjibayeva come to the police department of the airport.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva left Switzerland on the same day. Arriving in France, where she has been living in immigration for the past several years, Uzbek human rights activist Mutabar Tadjibayeva hired a lawyer to protect her interests in the Geneva police.

Later it was revealed that the head of the International human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club” was accused of trying to illegally enter the property, of violating personal space and property of persons with diplomatic status.

On March 12, Mutabar Tadjibayeva again went to Geneva to participate in the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council. During her visit, the human rights activist from Uzbekistan also meet with the Geneva police representatives.

In an interview to “Jarayon”, Ms.Tadjibayeva told about her visit to the police in Geneva and other details of the complaint filed against her by the Mission of Uzbekistan to the UN Geneva office.

Jarayon: Ms.Tadjibayeva, your participation at the International Film Festival on Human Rights ended with the fact that the Geneva police began searching for you. A few days later you again took a trip to Geneva. What was the purpose of your second visit to Switzerland?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: I was invited to Geneva to participate in the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council and in the UN event entitled “Eurasia: silence of human rights activists from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan”, which was a part of the HRC session. The event was organized by the International NGO CIVICUS, created as a world alliance for citizen participation with headquarters in South Africa, and the International Federation for Human Rights, also known as FIDH, based in France.

At the event, we mainly discussed the pressure on human rights defenders from the abovementioned three countries, fabrication of criminal cases against them on trumped up charges, depriving them of their liberty and subjecting them to torture due to their rights activities. In my speech during the event, I told that the recent wide-scale amnesty in Uzbekistan, announced on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Constitution of the republic, did not embrace political prisoners – human rights activists, independent journalists, civil society activists. Yet, the Uzbek authorities brought against them additional criminal charges for alleged “violations” of internal orders in prison.

Igor Vorontsov, former representative of the international human rights organization “Human Rights Watch”, also participated in the event and spoke about the situation of international and local human rights activists.

Marina Lebedeva, representative of the student movement of the “Fiery Hearts Club” also made a speech and said that mechanisms of international laws are not applied to Uzbek prisoners. She also highlighted the situation of Uzbek refugees in Kazakhstan, where the authorities of this country, breaching their international obligations, send the Uzbek refugees to Tashkent at the request of Uzbekistani authorities. (The article on this event will be published separately – Jarayon).

The participants of the event were also interested in my meeting with the police in Geneva and how the whole story ended. And I told them about my visit to the luxurious home of Gulnara Karimova, and details of the meeting with the police.

Jarayon: So you finally met with the Geneva police?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: Yes, the meeting with the representatives of Geneva police, which I had planned earlier, finally took place. We planned that we would arrive in Geneva on March 12 in the afternoon, and would be at the police department approximately at 3 pm. They promised that the translator, who was supposed to help us during the interrogation, would come at this time. But it snowed very heavily in Paris on this day, and it was very difficult to drive on the roads. As a result, we arrived in Geneva with delay for several hours. While we were on the road, representatives of Geneva police called us and asked whether we were on the way, and when we would come to their office. Immediately upon our arrival in Geneva, we went to the police station located in the airport.

Jarayon: Did you find out why they were looking for you?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: I went to the Security Police (Departament de la securite police) located in the airport. I was accompanied by my lawyer Amelie Piget, Igor Vorontsov and Marina Lebedeva. I wanted these people to be with me during the interrogation. I asked them to observe for any procedural violations. I explained to police that knowing the authority of Gulnara Karimova, and based on my previous experiences with the Uzbek police, knowing what steps they can take at such moments, I had a right to distrust the Geneva police and an interpreter they gave me. But the police agreed to allow only one of my representatives to be present during the interrogation, and under condition that this person only observes and listens to the process.

The interrogation started at 6 pm and lasted three hours. Apart from me and a translator, there was my lawyer and Igor Vorontsov.

During interrogation, it was found out that no one filed a written complaint against us to the police. We learned that Denis Makarov, attaché at Mission of Uzbekistan to the United Nations Office Geneva, came to the police together with a translator and made a verbal complaint against all those who visited the house of Gulnara Karimova. After this he was questioned by police on the basis of his complaint. Then the police began a preliminary investigation and therefore I was invited to the police station on that day.

Based on the testimony of Denis Makarov, police suspected us of committing an offense provided in Article 186 of the Criminal Code of Switzerland. If Makarov’s testimony was really confirmed, the police would have initiated a criminal case against us.

Here I would like to brief stop on the testimony of Denis Makarov to Geneva police. He told them that he heard the noise, went outside and saw five people who were recording the house to the camera. He demanded to stop videotaping. When he opened the door, Craig Murray allegedly began recording the inside part of the house. When Denis Makarov started banish us from home Karimova’s house, I allegedly threatened him with the publication of negative articles in the media.

I told the police that the testimony of Denis Makarov was a complete lie. He deceived them by saying that on that day the surveillance camera on the gate of the house was not working. However, Gulnara Karimova writes in her blog that she has a video of our visit. So I asked the police to attach the videotape, which Karimova mentioned in her blog, to the case. I also told them that we were ready to provide our recording that we filmed on that day near the house of Gulnara Karimova in Cologny.

Then I told the police about what really happened that day outside the house of Gulnara Karimova.

In fact, during the International Film Festival, we learned that the organizers invited Gulnara Karimova, representative of Uzbekistan to the UN Geneva office, to participate in the festival. We learned that she was informed about the film “Massacre in Uzbekistan” and about the discussion scheduled after the film. However, she did not respond to organizers of the festival. We looked for Gulnara Karimova and her office on March 1 at the United Nations office. However, we were informed that she was never present in the UN meetings, and she was never involved in the UN events dedicated to Uzbekistan. We were given contact phone numbers of the Mission of Uzbekistan to the UN Geneva office, but when we called these numbers, it was the answering machine that always responded.

Therefore, on March 2, we – Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, a famous Danish film director Michael Anderson, Igor Vorontsov, former representative of the “Human Rights Watch”, Andre Lorsch, journalist from Geneva, and I went to Cologny to find the house of Gulnara Karimova.

On that day, Denis Makarov did not come outside after hearing the noise, as he told to policemen. We rang the doorbell, but no one answered. Then, to inform about our visit, Craig Murray and I dropped our business cards in the mailbox of the house. Michael Andersen was recording everything to camera. A few minutes later someone shouted something, in English, or in French. I did not understand. Michael shouted back asking him “What?”, to which the man replied “Do not shoot.” We asked the man about whether the house belonged to Gulnara Karimova. He said he had not heard about her, that this house belonged to some Armenian man, and that he was just a guard. We have been talking to him for a long time and asked him whether he heard about Lola and Gulnara Karimova, who bought a house in the most affluent district of Geneva – Cologny. He said he had never heard about these people. Still, we had doubts about he said to us.

First, according to the information we found on the Internet, this house was listed as a private residence of Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of the Uzbek president Islam Karimov.

Second, the accent of the person who introduced himself as a guard of the house, which allegedly belonged to a rich Armenian, it was clear that he was an ethnic Russian person from Uzbekistan.

We came closer to the house. I stood next to the gate and began to give an interview to Michael Andersen. At this time, a person pictured in the photo came out from the house and said that he was against our shooting. “There are different thieves in this area. You are also being recorded by our security cameras. I do not know who you are and what is your goal,” said the man to us. I told him that we put our business cards into the mailbox. He opened the mailbox and picked up Craig Murray’s and my card. Then he said “These things can be made by anyone, and they do not serve as a document that identifies your personality.” Then, he received an SMS message to his mobile phone. He read it, and asked us to show him our IDs.

As I was standing close to him, I gave him my document. He received another message to his cell phone. He read it and took two steps into the house. Then he photographed my document to his mobile phone and gave it back to me. Only after this he said that the house was a territory of the state and that we should not record it to the camera. We asked him which country owned the land, to which he did not give any answer. After this we left the place.

From all these it became clear that Denis Makarov, guard of Karimova’s house, officially hold a position of an attaché of the Mission of Uzbekistan to the UN Geneva office. He gets a big salary, which is paid by the government of Uzbekistan. If he is an attaché, then why he did not come to us, when we rang the bell, and did not introduce himself? And if we tried to break into the house, as he told to police, then why he was not afraid to open the gate and come out to talk to us?

Why he did not say that the house belonged to the Uzbek diplomat Gulnara Karimova and her rights were protected under international laws, and that we should go? Why Denis Makarov, who did not tell us anything about the house of Gulnara Karimova, went to the police on the same day and complained against us as an attaché of the Mission of Uzbekistan? If he did not complain to police on the same day, we would not have known for sure that this house really belongs to Gulnara Karimova. We would only suspect, because information on the Internet is not always reliable.

There are a lot of questions, and I asked the police of Geneva to clarify them.

Jarayon: Earlier in her blog, Gulnara Karimova accused you of trying to illegally enter into her house, violating the personal space and property of a person with diplomatic status. Karimova even stated that she complained on this incident to police. Do you know if the complaint was filed on behalf of Gulnara Karimova herself?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: It was the just Denis Makarov’s name that appeared in the case of making a complaint to the police. But it was not hard to conclude that Gulnara Karimova, through her channels, influenced the police in Geneva to have them open a criminal case against us and speed up the process.

Jarayon: In her blog, Gulnara Karimova says that she has her “own video of the March invasion”, as she calls your visit to her house. Did Geneva police give you any information about this video?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: I took the printed copies of the interview, which was published in Gulnara Karimov’s blog and several other Uzbek website loyal to her. Both the testimony of Denis Makarov to Geneva police and interview of Gulnara Karimova entirely built on slander and lies. There is only one difference between them. Makarov told to police that on the day of our visit surveillance cameras were not installed at the gate of the house”, whereas Karimova writes in her blog that they were able to make their “own video of the March invasion.”

Jarayon: What else can you tell us about the meeting with the Geneva police?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: As I said earlier, our meeting lasted three hours. We left there at 9 pm. I think that neither the police nor the interpreter, and nor my lawyer regretted the time spent for listening to my opinions on each item of the interrogation protocol, and my demands to make changes in them. Because I know that a protocol is a historical document, and in the future it will be important when the time comes for discussing crimes committed by the Karimovs.

First of all, Michael Andersen will publicize the video recorded next to the house of Gulnara Karimova. We hope that Gulnara Karimova, in turn, provides her own video, which she mentioned in the interview.

After viewing two video footages, let the people of Uzbekistan decide who is telling the truth and who is lying!

I recall Gulnara Karimova saying in the interview: “It seems like the group of people that visited us in Geneva wanted to congratulate us with spring and express their grievance by screaming and as they said they wanted me or my sister Lola to come out. They attempted to sneak inside and walk around the house recording it all on video and we had nothing to do, but call the police and make our own video of this March invasion of “human right defenders” as they call themselves.”

Now, when everything cleared up, it turns out that Denis Makarov gave false testimony to police, and such action is punished by the Criminal Code of Switzerland.

It has also been proven that Gulnara Karimova planned the interview in advance, published it on her blog and in a number of other websites loyal to her. She did it to discredit our honor and dignity, and to slander us.

Jarayon: Ms.Tadjibaeva, what do you think about Gulnara Karimova’s description of you and your colleagues in her blog, and her opinion on the incident that occurred next to her home in Geneva?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: In her blog, Gulnara Karimova accused us that we were “always ready to work off their payments while not having anything else to do, any other interests, hobbies or a properly paid job…” In addition, Gulnara, who loves to point out each time that she is directly connected with the world of Internet, said: “A lady of Uzbek origin Mutabar Tadjibayeva, who introduces herself as a president of the «Club des Coeurs Ardents».”

If Gulnara Karimova, who heads the Mission of Uzbekistan to the UN Geneva office, dug a bit further in the Internet, she would be able to find enough information that I was awarded a number of prestigious international awards, that the organization «Club des Coeurs Ardents» under my leadership was registered in France, that the website of the organization has been operating for two years, and that during this period we have managed to do several projects that are quite useful for Uzbek society. Moreover, recently many online sources published articles that we sent a complaint to the UN in which we accuse the Uzbek government of serious crimes. I believe that the Representative of Uzbekistan to the UN Geneva office should be well informed about all this.

Her response to my address, expressed in order to humiliate me once again proves that she is a diplomat, who is very “faithful” to her office and duties. I believe that she shamelessly slandered us, accused us of a crime, and this yet again shows the true face of the government of Uzbekistan. We had to face with the pressure of Gulnara Karimova and the Uzbek government in a democratic country. If it was in Uzbekistan, I would have long been arrested, deprived of all rights, and the Uzbek authorities would have started investigation on charges of “committing multiple crimes.”

Jarayon: Did you receive a copy of the complaint against you and were you informed about how the process will go further on this case?

Mutabar Tadjibayeva: Right after we came to the police station, I asked them to give me a copy of the complaint written against us. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the laws of Switzerland forbid giving anyone a copy of the compliant at the time of consideration of the complaint. They do not even show the original complaint. The police only say the source of the complaint and inform about its content.

Both the police and my lawyer explained me how process goes on the case. They already interrogated me, and now they will prepare a report and submit it to the Swiss mission to the United Nations. After that, the case file will be transferred to the prosecutor’s office. Then the prosecutor decides to close the case or not. As soon as the case will be given to the prosecutor, I will have the right to take copies of all documents of the case. And I have already demanded the police to provide me with all the necessary copies.

What we do next, what legal actions we take – we, the “criminals” that visited the mansion of Gulnara Karimova, decide it after we all consult together.

Jarayon: Ms.Tadjibaeva, thank you for the interview.