In January 2009, when my husband Ortikov was imprisoned for six years charged with “human trafficking”, I still believed that justice would prevail, and my husband would be acquitted because in our prospering independent Uzbekistan things could not be otherwise, achievements of which had been continuously covered by newspapers and television.

However, in May 2009, after I learned that tortures were applied against my husband to force him to plead guilty of spying for Britain, I began doubting that Uzbekistan has fair courts and lives of people are well protected.

As a result of my attempts to prove the innocence of my spouse, my appeals to various organizations, communications with senior officials, I realized that our whole life consists of lies; that all information delivered through newspapers, television and radio aims to distract people. Then I realized the meaning of subtle sarcasm of some Uzbeks, who say not for nothing “I wish I could live the life presented by Akhborot” (Akhborot is a daily news program of the Uzbek state channel – Jarayon’s note).

For several months, I have seen episodes of deplorable lives and uncertain future of the Uzbek people. I received the same answer to all my appeals to the responsible authorities of the Republic of Uzbekistan about innocence of my husband – they stated in the official letter to me that my husband was punished according to the law.

Thanks to efforts of “Human Rights Watch”, and international human rights organization, and independent journalists in 2011, we were able to have my husband Kayum Ortikova released from detention, and a year later we and our four children were forced to leave Uzbekistan.

After undergoing ordeals for more than a year, we were able to obtain asylum in the United States, one of the leading countries of the world. Within just a few days, we witnessed that human rights and interests dominate in this country, and each branch serves for good of the man.

And what is going on in our Uzbekistan? For 25 years, under the direct leadership of Islam Karimov, spiritual and material wealth of the Uzbek people have been plundered, ordinary people have grown poor. As a result, 8 million Uzbeks have to work as mardikors (mardikor is a low skilled worker hired for any job for little money – Jarayon’s note) in order to feed their families.

The National Security Service has turned into a service of humiliation of the Nation, which enjoys unlimited authority. Any free-thinking person, who can lead the nation, may be imprisoned based on charges trumped up by the authorities. In prison, he or she may be subject to vile and abominable tortures, or has to flee the country.

In order to keep the nation in fear, the authorities accuse absolutely innocent people of “religious extremism”, “terrorism” and other crimes, and put them in jails for many years.

I believe it would be correct to call such innocent people, who suffer humiliation in Uzbek prisons, oppressed people. Because they take on crimes they never committed to ensure safety of their family members, they face deaths, suffering tortures ruthlessly applied against them by officers of the National Security Service and policemen. Their family members, including even babies and old people, their parents, are forced to live under pressure. Unfortunately, oppressed people are the majority of the prison population of Uzbekistan.

The authorities still continue keeping in prison such civil society activists as Murod Juraev and Samandar Kukanov, who have served their long terms in prison being old and in poor health. This, unfortunately, does not mean that the future of Uzbekistan is great. On the contrary, this suggests that the future of the Uzbek people is simply being destroyed.

Officials in all spheres, which are supposed to serve for improvement of lives of ordinary people and to secure decent future, have turned into a mill to generate wealth, a mechanism of corruption. It is sad that this mechanism has ruined education so much, that people, who work outside Uzbekistan, may become a student of any university, and get his or her university diploma (degree). And this is not an example of a bright future; obviously it is example of a half-dead future of the Uzbek people.

However, one should mention the hypocritical policy of the Western countries in regard to the fate of ordinary people of Uzbekistan. Human rights issues should always be in the first place during the process of diplomatic relations with the Government of Uzbekistan, and this would be great assistance to the people of Uzbekistan. However, the response of Czech President Milos Zeman to the request of more than 30 human rights organizations to reconsider the visit of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov to Prague, his accusation against human rights defenders of “hypocrisy”, and his statement that Karimov’s visit to this country in the future is possible, is absolutely contrary to his status, and showed his indifference to the fate of the Uzbek people.

Another example: Despite the fact that the British Embassy in Tashkent promised our family to provide assistance in every possible way, my letters for assistance addressed to British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland remained unanswered. By this action, the British government, no matter how democratic this country is, did not want to spoil its relations with the Uzbek dictatorship, and actually proved that it can be indifferent and irresponsible to the fate of a former employee of its diplomatic office in Tashkent.

While the British government remained silent in regard to our family, the USA granted us “political asylum”, permitted us to enter the country, and on 20 February 2014, we managed to arrive in Pennsylvania, the USA.

French-based “Fiery Hearts Club” international human rights organization, which prepared the complaint of Kayum Ortikov against the Government of Uzbekistan, and helped us submit it to the UN Human Rights Committee, and displayed dedication to ensure that the UN recognize my husband a victim of torture, is now working with its partners to take appropriate measures to ensure that my spouse can obtain necessary qualified medical and psychological assistance as a victim of tortures.

No doubt that my husband managed to get out of prison alive and seek asylum in the United States due to invaluable work of human rights organizations.

Taking this opportunity, I express my sincere and deep appreciation to “Ezgulik”, the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, and personally its leaders Vasilya Inoyatova and Abdurakhman Tashanov, “Human Rights Watch”, an international human rights organization, and its employee Steve Swerdlow, who has been assisting our family for five years as well as to Mutabar Tadjibayeva, the head of “Fiery Hearts Club”international human rights organization, and journalists James Hanning and Jonathan Owenra from The Independent based in London, and all journalists from www.jarayon.com website, who were not indifferent to my troubles and woes of my family, and who provided me with a platform, supported me in my fight against tortures, and never get tired to raise the alarm about the use of tortures in Uzbekistan. I also thank all human rights defenders and journalists, who have been supporting our family all the time.

I recognize all these organizations to be great force that fights to liberate the people of Uzbekistan from 25 years of oppression of the dictatorship. I state that I am always ready to support them and to work with them. Given that not only my family has suffered the dictatorial regime in Uzbekistan, but thousands of other families, we decided to unite all of them, and to do that, we decided to create an initiative group titled “For life without tortures” under the auspices of “Fiery Hearts Club”international human rights organization.

I appeal to all families living in the West, who have become victims of tortures in Uzbekistan, who fled from violence in that country, who are forced to live far away from their homeland and their beloved ones, who have undergone ordeals, and who are not indifferent to their fates and the fate of the Uzbek nation to join our group because tortures are our pain, and the pain of the Uzbek nation. If we do not talk about tortures first, then nobody can help us.

Mokhira ORTIQOVA