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Introduction Defenders In Custody Active Defenders Defenders Released

Tojibaeva
  

Saidjahon Zainabiddinov, (b. 1957), is chair of the human rights group Appeliatsia (Appeal), which was refused registration by the Uzbek authorities on March 14, 2005. He has monitored the rights of independent Muslims charged by the government with “religious extremism,” torture, deaths in custody, and corruption in the judiciary. In 2002 he published a report entitled “The Wall around Justice,” about law enforcement practices and corruption. In spring 2005 Zainabitdinov became one of the international community’s main sources of reliable information on the events of May 13, 2005 in the city of Andijan. On that day Zainabitdinov gave dozens of interviews to the press and international community about the uprising and protest in his city and about indiscriminate shooting of unarmed protesters by Uzbek forces. He also spoke out forcefully against this massacre in the days following it.

Uzbek authorities arrested Zainabitdinov on May 21, 2005 and accused him of publishing bulletins that “were intended to sow panic among the population” and undermine Uzbekistan’s public image. According to one official, Zainabitdinov was accused of giving false statements to journalists 49 times on May 13. Following a closed trial about which even his family was not notified, Zainabitdinov was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment on charges including slander, undermining the constitutional order, and membership in an illegal religious organization. He was recently transferred from Karsh prison to the Tashkent remand prison.

 
Tojibaeva
  
Mutabar Tojibaeva,(b. 1962) is a Margilan-based rights defender and head of the unregistered Burning Hearts club. She has helped ordinary people write complaints to the authorities, monitored dozens of trials, and published reports about illegal child labor. She was a vocal critic of the Uzbek government, for example by speaking out against the massacre in Andijan. Police arrested Tojibaeva on October 7, 2005 while she was preparing to travel to Ireland for a human rights conference. She faced 17 criminal charges, including slander, extortion, and membership in an illegal organization (her unregistered organization). On March 6, 2006, following a grossly unfair trial in which she was denied the right to prepare an adequate defense and cross-examine several key state witnesses, she was sentenced to eight years in prison. This sentence was upheld on appeal.

At trial Tojibaeva remained defiant, saying “I do not regret my activities and I will continue them regardless of the verdict.”

Tojibaeva is currently being held at the Tashkent women’s prison. During the summer prison authorities put her in the prison’s psychiatric ward without informing her lawyers of the reason, and forced Tojibaeva to take pills every day. When her lawyers asked what the pills were, Tojibaeva said she did not know. Prison authorities have denied her access to her family and lawyer since September 2006, saying that she is being held in a punishment cell.
 
Kholjigitov
  

Norboi Kholjigitov,  (b. 1952) is a member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan in Samarkand province who defended farmers’ rights,   assisting farmers fighting expropriation of their farms. After working as the director of two state-owned farms he established his own farm, called Free Peasants, in 2004, and supported the poor. Police arrested Kholjigitov on June 4, 2005, on the basis of statements accusing him of threatening to publicly blackmail business owners if they did not buy his silence. At his trial, these statements were retracted.  The judge, however, did not account for this change in testimony, and on October 18, 2005, sentenced Kholjigitov to ten years in prison for extortion and slander. Two other members of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, Abdusattor Irzaev (b. 1953), the director of a school, and Habibulla Okpulatov (b. 1950), a teacher at the same school, were tried and sentenced to six years of imprisonment at the same trial.

 
Formonov Karamatov
  
Azam Formonov (b. 1978) and Alisher Karamatov (b. 1968), are both active members of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan in Gulistan, in Syrdaryo province. Police arrested them on April 29, 2006, and they were charged with attempting to blackmail a local businessman. They were tried at the Yangier City Court without the presence of either their attorney of choice or their non-attorney public defender, Tolib Yakubov, chair of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan who now has to live in exile. They were each sentenced to nine years in prison on June 15, 2006. A week before the sentencing, in a private conversation at the prison with Mr. Yakubov, the men described how they were tortured and pressured into signing false confessions. Formonov is currently being held at Jaslyk prison, and Karamatov, at Karshi prison .
 
Nazarov
  

Mamarajab Nazarov, is chair of the Zardbar district branch, in Samarkand province, of the human rights organization Ezgulik and a member of the political party Birlik. In recent years he has been working mainly on farmers’ rights, in particular supporting their right to protest the Jizzakh province governor’s policies towards them. On May 26, 2005, immediately after police detained Nazarov and other human rights defenders to prevent them from protesting the Andijan massacre, a group of approximately 70 people, including local government officials, attempted to hold a Soviet-style “hate rally” against Nazarov at his home in Buston, in Jizzakh province. (On the same day the crowd held similar hate rallies against three other human rights defenders in Jizzakh. The crowd accused Nazarov of seeking to destabilize Jizzakh and demanded that Nazarov leave Buston; several days later his landlord evicted him

After Nazarov and his family resettled in Zarbdar at the end of May 2005, Nazarov filed a complaint about the illegal “privatization” of his home in Buston. On June 22, 2006 he was arrested and on July 19 was sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment on charges of extortion. Nazarov is currently being held in prison in Samarkand.

 
Karimov
  
Jamshid Karimov,  (b. 1967) is an independent journalist from Jizzakh. On September 12, 2006 he disappeared after visiting his mother at the Jizzakh Province hospital. Karimov is currently held at the Samarkand Psychiatric Hospital and according to unconfirmed rumors is being subjected to forcible treatment with antipsychotic drugs. Jamshid Karimov, the son of president Karimov’s elder brother who died in 1991, is a vocal critic of the government’s policies and regularly publishes articles on the internet.
 
Nosim Isakov (b. 1967) was active with the Jizzakh city branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, and in the past few years has been working on corruption and on cases involving home evictions. He was arrested on October 27, 2005, and charged with hooliganism on the basis of a written complaint stating that he exposed himself publicly to his neighbor’s teenage daughter. Isakov’s supporters found the accusation particularly shocking and offensive because he is a pious Muslim. At his trial, which began December 15, Isakov did not confess and told the judge that while in pre-trial detention he had been beaten on his head with a bottle filled with water. He also gave a written complaint to his lawyer about these beatings and psychological pressure that he endured. On December 20, 2005, Isakov was sentenced to eight years in prison. He is currently being held at Karshi prison.
 
DilmurodMukhiddinov (b. 1979) is an active member of the human rights organization Ezgulik and of the political party, Birlik. Police arrested Mukhiddinov in his home in Markhamat district, Andijan province on May 20, 2005, and accused him – and five others involved with the party– with distributing a Birlik statement condemning the Andijan massacre.  Five of the original group of six were tried by the Tashkent Province Court and received suspended sentences on January 12, 2006. Mukhiddinov was sent to prison for five years.
 
Rasul Khudainasarov (b. 1956) is the head of the Angren branch of the human rights organization Ezgulik and has focused his work on fighting corruption in the police and security forces. He was arrested on July 21, 2005. On January 12, 2006 he was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison on charges of extortion, swindling, abuse of power, and falsification of documents. Khudainasarov wrote a letter to his lawyer complaining about beatings and ill-treatment he was subjected to the day after his trial ended. According to the letter, Khudainasarov was also put in a punishment cell on January 13, one day after the verdict was issued, in retribution for not confessing during the trial.
 
Bobomurod Mavlanov (b. 1946), from Nurobod district, Samarkand province, is a member of the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan and of Erk. He was arrested on October 6, 2005 and charged with abuse of authority and bribe-taking. Mavlanov ran a private after-school educational center in the town of Nurobod. In late June 2005, two teachers at his center, wrote complaints to the prosecutor’s office accusing Mavlanov of taking bribes in exchange for their jobs. Later, both teachers rescinded their statements. They wrote letters to the director of the Samarkand National Security Service, stating that the head of the Nurobod district National Security Service pressured them into accusing Mavlanov of bribe-taking. In November 2005, a court sentenced Mavlanov to five and a half years in prison.
 
Ulugbek Kattabekov is a human rights defender from Jizzakh province and chair of the Zamin district branch of Ezgulik. He is also a member of the political party Birlik. In spring 2005 he publicly addressed the problem of the Zamin district’s water supply. According to Kattebekov’s research, the local water supply problem was the result of the lack of several kilometers of water pipes that had been sold off by the local authorities. In June 2005 Kattabekov was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for extortion. His trial seemed to be politically motivated and aimed at stopping him from conducting any further work.