Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 - Uzbekistan

Overview: As with other Central Asian governments in 2013, the Government of Uzbekistan remained concerned about the possibility of a growing terrorism threat connected to changes in the number of international forces in Afghanistan past 2014, and it continued to seek to reduce its vulnerability to this perceived threat. A central concern is the possibility that terrorist groups that have previously operated in Uzbekistan, notably the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), could return from Afghanistan and pose a greater threat. While Uzbekistan's government remains confident that it can control its border with Afghanistan, it is less sure about its neighbors' ability to do so and is particularly concerned with infiltration of extremists through Uzbekistan's long, rugged border with Tajikistan.

The Government of Uzbekistan restricts information on internal matters, making it difficult to analyze both the extent of the terrorist threat and the effectiveness of Uzbekistani law enforcement's efforts to combat it. Additionally, resource constraints, corruption and lack of modern law enforcement training continue to hamper the government's ability to respond to terrorist attacks. Furthermore, Uzbekistan's counterterrorism effectiveness is undermined by its lack of respect for fundamental human rights, ineffective and overly bureaucratic institutions, and slow progress in establishing the rule of law. These factors increase the country's vulnerability to the appeal of violent extremism.

2013 Terrorist Incidents: On October 26, independent, Prague-based press outlet Ozodlik reported that 25 year-old Doniyor Oripov detonated an improvised explosive device in a restroom of a restaurant in Samarkand, killing himself and wounding his 18 year-old brother Damir Oripov. Uzbekistani authorities did not release any information on the incident.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The Government of Uzbekistan investigates and prosecutes terrorist-related acts under its Law on Combating Terrorism, passed in 2000 and revised in 2004. The Law on Combating Terrorism identifies the National Security Service (NSS), the Ministry of Interior, the State Border Guards Committee (operating within the NSS command structure), the State Customs Committee, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry on Emergency Situations as the government entities responsible for countering and responding to terrorism. The NSS is the lead counterterrorist law enforcement agency, with primary responsibility for the coordination and supervision of the interagency efforts.

Law enforcement in Uzbekistan continued to arrest, prosecute, and convict an unknown number of people under charges of extremism in 2013. External security threats and "religious extremism" provide the primary justifications for Uzbekistan's restrictive border control and often indiscriminate police actions. Moreover, the security sector in Uzbekistan, led by the NSS, prioritized the narrow goal of securing the regime against internal dissent and utilized broad enforcement methods to maintain internal security. As a result, its policy is to brand any Islamic groups that it broadly determines to deviate from the state-sponsored version of Islam as "extremist" and to criminalize membership in such groups. Law enforcement frequently uses the terms "terrorism" or "extremism" interchangeably and views alleged ties to what the government considers extremist organizations as grounds to arrest, prosecute, and convict people. It is possible that the Uzbekistani security forces have neutralized legitimate threats in course of conducting indiscriminate and broadly targeted anti-extremist or politically motivated operations; however, a lack of reliable information makes it difficult to differentiate between legitimate counterterrorist law enforcement actions and politically motivated arrests aimed at individuals on the basis of their religion or opponents of the government.

Below are known examples from 2013 in which law enforcement arrested and prosecuted suspects under charges of alleged extremism or terrorism. As with many cases like this, it is difficult to determine if the arrests and convictions were truly terrorist- or violent extremist-related or simply used to suppress expressions of political or religious beliefs.

• A court sentenced to five to 12 years in prison 11 adherents of the banned Jihadisti (Jihodchilar) group from Namangan Region for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and "inciting interethnic and interreligious hatred."

• Authorities jailed nine individuals for membership in the banned Tabligh Jammat group, as well as for teaching religion to others without proper education.

• A court sentenced eight individuals from eight to 18 years in prison for alleged membership in a "Wahhabi" group and for possessing banned religious literature.

• Authorities brought charges against Novosti Uzbekistana newspaper for "consciously promoting terrorism" and banned its publication. The charges related to a picture that the newspaper published in its October 10 edition. The file photograph, taken from the internet for an article about the Andijon local government, reportedly showed armed individuals during the 2005 Andijon events.

• A court sentenced 26-year-old Murodali Isroilov to seven years in prison for conspiring while in Russia to create a clandestine extremist organization within Uzbekistan to build an Islamic state and implement "Wahhabi" doctrine.

• An international NGO and family members reported that Kazakhstan extradited to Uzbekistan 38-year-old Khayrullo Tursunov. Kashkadaryo Region Criminal Court sentenced Tursunov to 16 years in prison on June 6 on "religious extremism" charges.

• In July 2013, Amnesty International released a report focusing on the practice of forcible extraditions in Central Asia, highlighting numerous cases where Uzbekistani citizens were extradited from other Commonwealth of Independent States member states, often forcibly and without due process of law, to face charges of "religious extremism" in Uzbekistan.

As part of an end-of-year amnesty of prisoners announced by the Senate in December in honor of the 21st anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, the Uzbekistani government included a group of prisoners identified as "individuals who were convicted for the first time of participation in banned organizations and the commission of crimes against peace and security or against public security and who have firmly stood on the path to recovery." However, the decree also included stipulations that prisoners convicted of "participating in banned organizations and those convicted of participating in crimes against the public order," terms used in the past for prisoners convicted of extremism, would be excluded from those being released.

The Government of Uzbekistan continued issuing biometric passports to citizens for travel outside of Uzbekistan. The biometric data includes a digital photo, fingerprints, and biographical data.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Uzbekistan belongs to the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG), a FATF-style regional body. In 2013, Uzbekistan's Cabinet of Ministers designated the Department on Fighting Tax, Currency Crimes and Legalization of Criminal Income under Prosecutor-General's Office as the body responsible for implementation of EAG agreements.

Legally, money laundering needs to be linked to a predicate offense. As such, investigators and the judicial system do not often pursue money laundering charges. Investigators have three months to finalize investigations. With the intense pressure to solve cases, this three month time frame does not leave much time to understand the complexities and/or to learn of the players involved in the money laundering.

For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume 2, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.

Regional and International Cooperation: Although the Government of Uzbekistan prefers bilateral engagement in its security-related cooperation, it is currently a member of several regional organizations that address terrorism, including the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), with the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure of the SCO (RATS) headquartered in Tashkent. Tashkent hosted the 2013 annual meeting of SCO heads of government. The Uzbekistani government also continued to work with several multilateral organizations such as the OSCE, the EU, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime on general security issues, including border control.

Countering Radicalization to Violence and Violent Extremism: Official government media continued to produce documentaries, news articles, and full-length books about the dangers of joining violent Islamist extremist and terrorist organizations. The message is generally targeted to the 15-40 year old, male demographic, which the government considers the most susceptible to recruitment to violent extremist groups, although some media has focused on keeping women from falling into the traps of violent extremists. In February and July, state TV aired programs warning parents of the danger of sending their children to hujras, traditional religious schools outlawed in the country, and declaring that the roots of religious extremism, dogmatism, and terrorism lay in private religious classes. However, some NGOs continued to suggest that greater freedom to circulate mainstream, non-extremist Islamic and other religious materials could be more effective in countering extremism than the current policy of maintaining a government monopoly over religious publications. We refer you to the Department of State's Annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom for further information.