Amnesty International Report 1999 - Uzbekistan

Amnesty International Report 1999 - UZBEKISTAN

Region:Europe

Country:UZBEKISTAN

One prisoner of conscience was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment. At least three possible prisoners of conscience were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. At least one human rights activist was detained and there was concern for the safety of another. One political prisoner was sentenced to death. Scores of others may have received unfair trials. Death sentences were believed to have been passed and carried out.

During the year President Islam Karimov repeatedly condemned the perceived spread of "Wahhabism", a strict Islamic sect, in Uzbekistan. On 1 May he endorsed tough measures against "those who are trying by any means to introduce political Islam, religious extremism and fanaticism" and told parliament that "fundamentalists should be shot". The same day parliament adopted a revised version of the 1991 law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations. The new law raises the number of citizens required to form a religious organization from 10, under the 1991 law, to 100. All religious groups must be registered, and activities by unregistered religious organizations are illegal. According to new articles in the criminal code, which also entered into force in May, anyone organizing an unregistered religious group could face up to five years in prison. The law punishes private religious teaching or missionary activity with three-year prison terms.

In June Syrdarya Regional Court sentenced 62-year-old journalist Shadi Mardiyev to 11 years' imprisonment for criminal libel and extortion. In August the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. According to reports, Shadi Mardiyev was arrested in November 1997 and charged with defamation and extortion following a radio broadcast which satirized alleged corrupt practices of a local procurator. A co-defendant was reportedly sentenced to 12 years in prison on allegedly fabricated charges of bribery. Shadi Mardiyev was said to have suffered a heart attack in detention.

Arbitrary arrests of alleged "Wahhabists" following a spate of murders of police officers and regional officials in the Fergana Valley in November and December 1997 continued throughout the year (see Amnesty International Report 1998). Some human rights monitors estimated the number of those detained to be over a thousand. There were reports that weapons or narcotics were planted on many of them in order to fabricate a criminal case against them. Allegations persisted that a large number of those detained were threatened, beaten and otherwise ill-treated in police custody. In March brothers Abdulkhai and Murod Egamberdiyev were sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Andijan Regional Court for illegal possession of narcotics and weapons. Both were possible prisoners of conscience. They said that the charges against them were fabricated and that they were prosecuted solely for refusing to shave their beards. The brothers had reportedly been arrested in Andijan in January by plainclothes police officers two weeks after they had been ordered by their local police station to shave off their beards. The police allegedly beat them and planted a small quantity of narcotics and 10 bullets in their pockets during the arrest.

On 29 April Fergana Regional Court sentenced Abdumalik Nazarov, the youngest brother of independent Islamic leader Obidkhon Nazarov, to nine years' imprisonment for illegal possession of narcotics and forgery of official documents. He was a possible prisoner of conscience. Abdumalik Nazarov had been detained in December 1997 with his father and an older brother at the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border (see Amnesty International Report 1998). It was alleged that the charge against Abdumalik Nazarov was fabricated because of his relationship to Obidkhon Nazarov. On 5 March Uzbek security forces had surrounded the house of Obidkhon Nazarov in Tashkent, allegedly in an attempt to take him and another imam, Tulkin Ergashev, to the Procurator General's office to answer questions about their activities. Neither man was present. There were reports that arrest warrants had been issued against the two men for promoting "Wahhabism", preaching illegally and trying to set up an Islamic state. An Islamic student, Ikromiddin Yusupov, claimed that he had been detained by officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in February and forced under duress to incriminate Obidkhon Nazarov and Tulkin Ergashev in anti-state activities.

In August possible prisoner of conscience Rakhmat Otakulov, a religious teacher, was released from prison after his term of imprisonment was commuted to a non-custodial sentence (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

There was concern for the safety of Zafarmirza Iskhakov, a human rights activist and former political detainee, who went into hiding after he received death threats from the Committee for National Security (KNB) in April. Zafarmirza Iskhakov had been monitoring the human rights situation in the Fergana Valley and had passed information of arrests and ill-treatment of alleged "Wahhabists" to inter-national human rights organizations. Following his contacts in March with international human rights monitors and foreign journalists, KNB officers reportedly came to question him about his human rights monitoring activities, warning him that "something could happen" to him or his children if he did not stop. Zafarmirza Iskhakov had previously been detained on a number of occasions as a result of his activities as deputy chairman of the outlawed non-violent opposition "Birlik" group and as a member of the banned independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan in Andijan.

Shovruk Ruzimuradov, a former prisoner of conscience and head of the Kashkadarya branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, was arrested at his home in Kashkadarya Region in southern Uzbekistan in April on charges of illegal possession of 12 firearms cartridges. He was held for 10 days. Human rights activists believed the cartridges were planted by law enforcement officers during a reportedly unsanctioned search of his house. He had reportedly been asked repeatedly by the authorities to stop engaging in human rights activities and to resign from the Human Rights Society.

In January Abdulfattakh Mannapov, an Uzbek human rights activist and member of the Moscow-based Society for Monitoring the Observance of Human Rights in Central Asia, was severely beaten in a street in Moscow, the Russian Federation, by two unknown men who also set their dog on him. He was admitted to hospital with multiple fractures and dog bites. Nothing was stolen during the attack, which led human rights monitors to believe the unprovoked attack was politically motivated. Abdulfattakh Mannapov had been approached in Moscow in 1997 by three unknown men, at least one of whom he recognized as an Uzbek, who threatened to harm him and his family if he did not stop his "treacherous activities" against Uzbekistan.

Scores of men were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment in at least five separate trials in connection with the 1997 murders in Namangan and the Fergana Valley (see above). In May Namangan Regional Court sentenced eight men to prison terms of between five and eight years for "terrorism", attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, and creation of a criminal group. The men were also accused of seeking to promote "Wahhabism". In a separate trial in May, Namangan Regional Court sentenced a further six men to similar terms of imprisonment for attempting to undermine the country's Constitution and forming an illegal criminal group. In June the Supreme Court sentenced seven men to prison sentences of between six and 10 years for attempting to destabilize the country and establish an Islamist state. In all the trials there were allegations that the defendants had been beaten and otherwise ill-treated in detention and forced under duress to confess. There was also concern that these men may have been imprisoned solely for their alleged affiliation to independent Islamic congregations.

In July the Supreme Court sentenced Talib Mamadzhanov to death for the murder of eight people. Seven co-defendants, one of them a minor, received prison sentences ranging from three to 10 years. Talib Mamadzhanov reportedly confessed to a series of murders between 1994 and 1997, including the murders of five police officers in the Fergana Valley which sparked the wave of arrests of alleged "Wahhabists" that began in December 1997. Talib Mamadzhanov was quoted as saying that the murders were religiously motivated. There were reports that the defendants had been beaten and otherwise ill-treated in pre-trial detention and that at least three defendants claimed to have been tortured and forced under duress to give false evidence. Nosir Yusupov was said to have had a plastic bag placed over his head and to have been tortured with electric shocks. His 16-year-old son, Dzhamaliddin, told the court that he too had been tortured. Co-defendant Isroil Parpiboyev stated in court that he was tortured with electric shocks, and that he was taken naked to the prison yard after cold water had been poured over him. It was winter. He also alleged that a bottle was inserted into his anus and that vodka was poured onto his wounds. International observers at the trial noted that Talib Mamadzhanov appeared to be ill and lost consciousness during one hearing.

In October a further 15 men, all said to have been followers of independent Islamic leader Abduvali Mirzoyev who "disappeared" in 1995 (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 to 1998), went on trial before the Supreme Court for their alleged participation in the 1997 Namangan murders. In December they received prison sentences ranging from five to 16 years.

At least 10 men were sentenced to death. Other death sentences were believed to have been passed and carried out, but no official information was available. In August parliament removed the death penalty as a possible punishment under five articles of the criminal code. It remained in force for eight crimes.

Amnesty International expressed concern that the restrictions and penalties imposed on religious groups by the new law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations might lead to persecution of their members and possibly the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience.

Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of Shadi Mardiyev. The organization urged the authorities to repeal Articles 139 and 140 of the criminal code to prevent further prosecutions for peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.

Amnesty International was concerned that the prosecutions of the Egamberdiyev brothers and Abdumalik Nazarov were part of a clampdown against Islamic leaders, including Obidkhon Nazarov, and congregations not affiliated to the state-regulated Muslim Spiritual Directorate.

The organization was gravely concerned that the trials of political prisoners might have been influenced by negative statements made by President Karimov against Islamic activists and called for full and impartial inquiries into allegations of torture, beatings and other ill-treatment made during the trials.

Amnesty International called on the President to commute the death sentence of Talib Mamadzhanov and all other death sentences that came before him, and to abolish the death penalty.