Category Archives: CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVISTS

PRESS RELEASES: UN Rights Committee Finds Turkmenistan Responsible for Torture and Death of a Journalist

Ogulsapar Muradova

August 2, 2018

NEW YORK — In a grim indictment of Turkmenistan’s notoriously dire human rights record, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has found the government there responsible for the torture and death in custody after an unfair trial of Ogulsapar Muradova, a journalist and human rights activist who died in prison in September 2006.

Tadjibayeva released an addition list of Uzbek political prisoners

In late November 2014, Mutabar Tadjibayeva, the head of Fiery Hearts ClubInternational Human Rights Organization based in France, released her list of 43 political prisoners of Uzbekistan.

According to the human rights activist, they were sentenced to long years in prison for political and religious reasons.

“We support US senators, who recently stood up for defense and release of five Uzbek political prisoners. However, we decided once again to publish a list of the people, who have been kept in prisons of Uzbekistanfor more than 21 years. This list includes new names of political prisoners. Each of them deserves to be considered a political prisoner. I believe it is necessary to mention their names during talks of Western politicians with the Uzbek authorities about the fates of the political prisoners,” Tadjibayeva told “Jarayon”.

Petition on the behalf of imprisoned Uzbek journalist Salijon Abdurakhmanov

Her Excellency Dr. Angela Merkel

Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

We, the undersigned, ask for your support and assistance in getting the government of Uzbekistan to release the 64-year-old journalist Salijon Abdurakhmanov from prison.

We ask you to take a minute of your time and call the Uzbek President Islam Karimov to personally ask him to release Abdurakhmanov.

ACAT-France awards human Rights prize to Mutabar Tadjibayeva

“Engel-duTertre” awarded to the famous Uzbek human rights defender and her organization “Fiery Hearts Club” in recognition of work against torture in Uzbekistan

On November 15, ACAT-France celebrated forty years since its creation in 1974 by Edith du Tertre and Helene Engel by awarding the first ever Engel-duTertre prize to Mutabar Tadjibayeva.

Tadjibayeva, renowned activist and head of the international human rights association “Fiery Hearts Club”, has been living in exile in Paris after being jailed and tortured in Uzbekistan. For more than two decades, Tadjibayeva has continued the fight for human rights in Uzbekistan.

Fearing growing religiosity of the population, the Uzbek security services have started controlling private gatherings of citizens

Many Muslims of Uzbekistan have been prosecuted after attending private gatherings of their friends.

I would like to begin our story with the recent case of Uzbek refugee Mirsobir Khamidkariev, who was kidnapped in Moscow in early June 2014. I would remind that this person asked for asylum in Russia as since 2011 the Uzbek Government had internationally searched for him.

Independent journalist Dilmurod Sayid was told about his mother’s death a month after her decease

Obidzhon Saidov told Jarayon that he visited his elder brother Dilmurod Sayidin the prison in Karshi on 8 November 2014.

“On 8-9 November I was visiting my brother in the prison in Karshi. We did not have time to sleep as we talked until dawn. He looked so-so, sometimes he coughed. He said he had a little cold. He is depressed. My brother asked me to thank everybody, who struggle for his release. He expressed his greatest gratitude to human rights activist Mutabar Tadjibayeva.

Dilmurod told me: ‘If, God willing, I am freed from the prison, first of all I’ll go to the cemetery to pay honor in the memory of my mother, wife and daughter. After that, my first duty will be to visit this precious woman,’” said Obidzhon Saidov.

Mirsobir Khamidkariev asserted Russian secret services were involved into his abduction

He said that to his lawyer Illarion Vasiliyev in Tashkent courtroom.

Our website reported in late October that the Uzbek court agreed to allow Russian lawyer Illarion Vasiliyev to access Mirsobir Khamidkariev’s case. In early November, the journalists of our website received a letter from lawyer Vasiliyev in which he reported about his arrival in Tashkent to attend Mirsobir Khamidkariev’s case.

“I saw Mirsobir, the judge allowed us to communicated in the courtroom. The judge’s attitude to Mirsobir is positive. The process, according to his lawyer, proceeds softly. It is not a high-profile case here. The charge against him is based on article 216 (organizing illegal public associations and religious organizations) and articles 244-2 (creation, management and participation in religious extremist, separatist, fundamentalist or other banned organizations) of the Uzbek Criminal Code. The crime according to article 244-2 is a serious one, it should be removed. Nobody, including his relatives, is aware of things Mirsobir told me about in the courtroom,” said lawyer Illarion Vasiliyev.

Photo portraits and documents of human rights activist Mutabar Tadjibayeva displayed in New York photo exhibition

On 3 November, a photo exposition was launched in New York, which displays portraits and documents of Mutabar Tadjibayeva, a prominent Uzbek human rights defender and the head of Fiery Hearts Club International Human Rights Organization.

The photo exposition titled “Moving Walls/Watching You, Watching Me” shows works of 10 photographers, who specialize on human rights issues.

Portraits of Uzbek human rights defender Mutabar Tadjibayeva were made by Swiss photographer Marie Bastashevski, who also cooperates with funds providing Internet security consulting.

The Uzbek court agreed to allow Russian lawyer to access the case of Mirsobir Khamidkariev

On 21 October, Illarion Vasiliyev, Russian lawyer of Uzbek refugee Mirsobir Khamidkariev, who was kidnapped this summer in Moscow, told “Jarayon”that the Uzbek court agreed to allow him to access Mirsobir Khamidkariev’s case.

“The judge has agreed to allow me to access Khamidkariev’s case. I’m going to fly to Tashkent in the near future to participate in the court sessions,” said lawyer Vasiliyev.

Bobomurod Razzokov: I tried to overcome the disease

Bobomurod Razzokov state of health has sharply deteriorated in the prison.

The public got to know that from Bobomurod Razzokov’s letter to his eldest son Shukhrat. In his letter, Razzokov mentioned that he badly suffers from the renal, liver and heart failures.

The human rights activist’s son passed the letter to “Ezgulik” representatives.