2015 prison census - Uzbekistan: Dilmurod Saiid

Saiid was serving a 12-and-a-half-year prison term at a high-security prison colony outside Navoi, where he was tortured with beatings and psychological pressure, according to news reports and CPJ sources. In 2013, he was denied adequate medical treatment for tuberculosis that he contracted in jail, reports said.

The journalist was arrested in his hometown, Tashkent, and placed in detention in Samarkand after a woman accused him of extorting US$10,000 from a businessman. Although the woman withdrew her accusation, saying she had been coerced, authorities refused to release the journalist, Saiid's lawyer, Ruhiddin Komilov, told CPJ at the time. In March 2009, regional authorities announced that new witnesses had come forward to accuse Saiid of extortion. Authorities also said that several farmers had accused him of using their signatures to create fraudulent court papers.

Saiid was charged with extortion and forgery. CPJ, along with several other international human rights and press freedom groups, determined the charges were fabricated in retaliation for his journalism. Before his arrest, Saiid reported on official abuses against farmers for the independent regional news website Voice of Freedom as well as for a number of local publications.

At Saiid's trial, the farmers told the court they had been pressured by prosecutors to testify against Saiid, Ferghana News reported. Their statements were ignored in what was one of several irregularities reported during the proceedings. Komilov said that authorities failed to notify him of a number of important hearing dates. When a regional court convicted and sentenced Saiid in July 2009, in a closed-door hearing, the journalist's lawyer and family were not present.

In November 2009, the journalist's wife and 6-year-old daughter were killed in a car accident on their way to visit him in prison, regional press reports said. Authorities rejected Saiid's 2011 application for amnesty, citing alleged violations of penal colony rules, Uznews reported.

Based on findings by CPJ and other groups, lawyers with the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom Now filed a March 2012 complaint with the U.N. Human Rights Committee, contesting Saiid's imprisonment and calling for his release. The case is pending.

In a handwritten note in January 2013 that he passed via his brother, during a prison visit, to a local rights activist, Saiid revealed details of his conditions in jail and pleaded for help. Saiid did not explicitly detail how he had suffered, but hinted that Uzbek and international laws against torture had been violated during his imprisonment.

On November 24, 2014, eight U.S. senators sent a public letter to President Islam Karimov, calling on him to release Saiid on humanitarian grounds.

In October 2015, CPJ called on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to call for the release of Saiid during his visit to the country. CPJ has not been able to determine where Saiid is being held or the status of his health in 2015.