2014 prison census - Uzbekistan: Muhammad Bekjanov, Yusuf Ruzimuradov
| Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
| Publication Date | 17 December 2014 |
| Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014 prison census - Uzbekistan: Muhammad Bekjanov, Yusuf Ruzimuradov, 17 December 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5498048613.html [accessed 17 September 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
| Muhammad Bekjanov, Erk | |
|---|---|
| Medium: | |
| Charge: | Anti-state |
| Imprisoned: | March 15, 1999 |
| Yusuf Ruzimuradov, Erk | |
| Medium: | |
| Charge: | Anti-state |
| Imprisoned: | March 15, 1999 |
Bekjanov, editor of the opposition newspaper Erk, and Ruzimuradov, a reporter for the paper, are the two longest-imprisoned journalists worldwide, CPJ research shows. Both journalists were jailed on politicized anti-state charges after extradition from Ukraine.
In January 2012, shortly before Bekjanov was scheduled to be released, authorities sentenced him to an additional five years in prison, citing the violation of unspecified prison rules, regional press reports said. The independent news website Uznews reported that Bekjanov was being held in a prison in the southwestern Navoi region in late 2014.
In a September 2014 report on political prisoners in Uzbekistan, the international organization Human Rights Watch said Ruzimuradov was being held in Tavaksay prison colony outside Tashkent. Human Rights Watch said that Ruzimuradov was due to be released in May 2014, but that authorities had extended his sentence for an undisclosed period because of unspecified violations of prison rules.
Authorities did not disclose Ruzimuradov's legal status or well-being in late 2014.
Bekjanov and Ruzimuradov were first detained in Ukraine-where they had lived in exile and produced their newspaper-and were extradited at the request of Uzbek authorities. In 2014, Human Rights Watch issued a report on Uzbekistan in which it cited the first-ever public testimony by Bekjanov's family, who said the two journalists had been kidnapped from Ukraine and brought back to Uzbekistan.
In September 1999, a Tashkent court convicted the two on charges of publishing and distributing a banned newspaper. Both were also convicted of participating in a banned political protest and attempting to overthrow the regime.
Both men were tortured before their trial began, according to CPJ sources and news reports. After the verdict was announced in November 1999, the two were jailed in high-security penal colonies for individuals convicted of serious crimes.
Nina Bekjanova, the editor's wife, told reporters that his health had deteriorated when she visited him in jail in March 2013. Bekjanova said her husband needed immediate treatment for a hernia and a relapse of tuberculosis, according to Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek service of the U.S. government-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She said the editor had not complained about his health to her during her previous visits, but that during this visit he had said, "There's not much longer left [for me] to suffer."
Bekjanova told Uznews that authorities did not obstruct her October 2014 visit to the prison as they had in the past. She said prison authorities had freed her husband from performing required labor at the prison's brick-making facility due to his age.
On November 24, 2014, eight U.S. senators sent a public letter to President Islam Karimov, calling on him to release the journalists on humanitarian grounds.