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Amnesty International Report 2002 - Uzbekistan

Covering events from January-December 2001

Republic of Uzbekistan
Head of state: Islam Karimov
Head of government: Otkir Sultanov
Capital: Tashkent
Population: 25.3 million
Official language: Uzbek
Death penalty: retentionist

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Reports of ill-treatment and torture by law enforcement officials of alleged supporters of banned Islamist opposition parties and movements, such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, continued unabated. Thousands of devout Muslims and dozens of members or supporters of the banned secular political opposition parties and movements Erk and Birlik were serving long prison sentences, convicted after unfair trials of membership of an illegal party, distribution of illegal religious literature and anti-state activities. Reports continued to be received that devout Muslim prisoners were singled out for particularly cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in places of detention, particularly prison camps. Several prisoners, among them a prominent human rights defender, died in custody, allegedly as a result of torture. There were at least 22 death sentences, reportedly imposed after unfair trials, and at least four executions were carried out.

Background

In July police used excessive force to break up peaceful demonstrations by female relatives of imprisoned alleged members of the banned Islamist opposition movement Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Andizhan and Tashkent, the capital. The women were protesting against the torture reportedly suffered by their male relatives. Dozens of the protesters were reportedly forcibly removed to detention centres.

Following the attacks in the USA on 11 September, and the subsequent bombing campaign in Afghanistan, there was concern that Uzbekistan might further clamp down on the country's internal opposition. Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, was one of the main allies of the US-led coalition in the region and at least 1,000 US ground troops were based at the Khanabad military base in the south of the country.

At the end of September, nine suspected members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir were charged with membership of an illegal party and attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, and sentenced to long prison terms. They were also charged with "having links to Osama bin Laden", the first time such a charge had been used in court. Human rights observers at the trial said that no convincing evidence of such links had been produced by the prosecution and they expressed fear that the case set a dangerous precedent.

In November Muhammad Salih, the exiled leader of the banned opposition Erk Democratic Party, was detained by Czech police at Prague airport, Czech Republic. He was remanded in custody while an extradition request from Uzbekistan was being examined. In December he was released and returned to Norway, where he had received refugee status in 1999, after Prague City Court ruled against extradition to Uzbekistan.

In September President Karimov publicly stated that around 100 people were executed each year. In October the number of offences punishable by death was reduced to four.

Allegations of torture and ill-treatment

Reports of ill-treatment and torture by law enforcement officials of alleged supporters of banned Islamist opposition parties and movements, including women, continued unabated. Thousands of devout Muslims and dozens of members or supporters of the banned secular political opposition parties and movements Erk and Birlik were serving long prison sentences, convicted after unfair trials of membership of an illegal party, distribution of illegal religious literature and anti-state activities. The courts were reported to have systematically failed to investigate or take into account the defendants' allegations of torture. Defendants accused of non-political criminal activities were also reported to have been tortured and ill-treated in detention in attempts to coerce confessions.

• Reports continued to be received that devout Muslim prisoners were singled out for particularly cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in places of detention, especially in strict regime prison camps. According to relatives and former prisoners, upon arrival at a prison camp, suspected so-called "Wahhabists" (members of independent Islamic congregations or followers of independent imams (religious leaders)) or suspected members or supporters of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, were separated from other prisoners and made to run between two lines of guards who beat them with truncheons as they passed. There were also allegations that devout Muslim prisoners were subjected to beatings, humiliation, forced labour and rape by other prisoners with the complicity of prison authorities. They were forced to sing the national anthem and were severely beaten if they refused to do so. There were consistent allegations that devout Muslim prisoners were punished if they were caught praying or reading the Koran, and that their beards were forcibly shaved.

Deaths in custody

Human rights groups reported several cases of deaths in custody as a result of torture or ill-treatment by law enforcement officers, including that of Emin Usman, a well-known Uzbek writer of ethnic Uighur origin.

• On 7 July, three weeks after his arbitrary detention by officers of the Kashkadarya Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, police returned to his family the body of Shovruk Ruzimuradov, a former prisoner of conscience and head of the Kashkadarya branch of the non-governmental organization Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan. They claimed that he had hanged himself in his prison cell. It was believed that he had died as a result of torture; relatives discovered that the body was extensively bruised and that some internal organs had apparently been removed. Mourners trying to attend the funeral were impeded by cordons around the village. Human rights activists arriving for the funeral from Tashkent reported that they had been ordered to return to the capital after being questioned and threatened by the police. Supporters believed that Shovruk Ruzimuradov was arrested because of his recent human rights activities, especially his monitoring of the forcible deportation of thousands of mountain villagers accused by the Uzbek authorities of collaborating with the banned opposition Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) (see below).

Trials of forcibly displaced villagers

In June, 73 ethnic Tajik mountain villagers were found guilty of collaborating with the IMU during their incursion into Uzbekistan in August 2000 and sentenced to between three and 18 years' imprisonment in four separate closed trials. This was despite earlier government assurances to the UN Human Rights Committee that the action to evacuate the villagers was taken in order to improve the living conditions of the people concerned and that no criminal cases would be opened against these forcibly displaced villagers. The group trials, which opened simultaneously and without prior notice at the end of May in Tashkent, were held in separate court buildings cordoned off by armed police. Relatives trying to gain access to the court proceedings were reportedly intimidated and attempts were made to force them to leave the city. Only one foreign observer, representing the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch, obtained access to one of the trials. All others, including foreign diplomats, local human rights monitors and the media, were barred.

According to the Human Rights Watch observer, the prosecution failed to provide any substantive evidence to prove the defendants' guilt. All the defendants had allegedly been held incommunicado until their trial and had not been granted the right to be represented by a lawyer of their own choice. In court the defendants reportedly withdrew their confessions and alleged that they had been tortured in order to force them to confess to fabricated charges. They alleged that they had been forced to memorize and recite prepared confessions on film. Some of the men showed the court marks on their bodies allegedly caused by torture. The court, however, failed to take any of these allegations into consideration.

In August 2000 the Uzbek military had forcibly and without prior notice rounded up and resettled thousands of mostly ethnic Tajik inhabitants from mountain villages in the southern Surkhandarynsk region on the border with Tajikistan, reportedly because armed units of the IMU had infiltrated these villages. According to witness accounts, the villagers were forced into military helicopters at gunpoint, and their homes were then set on fire and bombed, and their livestock was killed. The villagers were eventually resettled in Sherobad district, into previously abandoned houses, in allegedly very poor conditions and with no drinking water. According to some reports, arbitrary arrests of male villagers over the age of 17 started around November 2000.

Prisoner of conscience Ismail Adylov

On 3 July Ismail Adylov, a member of the unregistered Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, was unexpectedly released from prison after being granted a special presidential pardon. Ismail Adylov had been suffering from a chronic kidney disease, aggravated by harsh prison conditions, which made him extremely susceptible to infection. After his release Ismail Adylov said that he had been regularly and systematically beaten and ill-treated throughout his detention.

Ismail Adylov had been sentenced to six years' imprisonment on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, sabotage and possessing material constituting a threat to public security and order, after an unfair trial in September 1999. All the charges related to documents which were reportedly planted by police during a search of his home. He was believed to have been detained and sentenced because of his human rights work.

Possible prisoners of conscience

Scores of possible prisoners of conscience, including women, suspected by the authorities of being supporters of or sympathizers with Islamist opposition parties, were arbitrarily detained and charged with anti-state offences.

• Rahima Akhmadalieva, aged 40, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on 21 September for "undermining the constitutional order of Uzbekistan". There was concern at reports that the charges against her were fabricated and that she had been imprisoned solely to punish her for not disclosing the whereabouts of her husband, independent imam Ruhiddin Faruddinov.

Death penalty

Sentences

Nigmatullo Fayzullayev and Maksim Strakhov were sentenced to death by Tashkent City Court on 18 April for premeditated aggravated murder. The Appeals Board of Tashkent City Court upheld their death sentences on 29 May.

Maksim Strakhov's mother reported that when her son was arrested in October 2000 he was severely beaten by law enforcement officers for more than three days. He had reportedly previously received psychiatric treatment for post-traumatic stress symptoms after military service in Chechnya. The Supreme Court reportedly decided on 21 June to put the execution of Maksim Strakhov on hold for three months while psychiatric tests were carried out to assess his mental health. At the end of October, Maksim Strakhov's lawyer was informed that the Appeals Committee of the Supreme Court had concluded that the execution could go ahead. Maksim Strakhov's mother reportedly appealed to the Supreme Court, calling for further medical tests as she believed that the first tests were not conducted properly. According to her son they had consisted only of an X-ray of his skull and a five-minute conversation with a doctor. The UN Human Rights Committee reportedly sent an urgent communication to the Uzbek authorities, requesting a stay of execution of Maksim Strakhov. Nigmatullo Fayzullayev was still believed to be in imminent danger of execution.

Executions

Gabdulrafik Akhmadullin was executed on 6 June in Tashkent Prison despite international appeals to commute his death sentence. On 29 May his wife had reportedly been told by a presidential adviser that her husband's appeal for clemency would be considered within two or three months.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

• Uzbekistan: The rhetoric of human rights protection – briefing for the UN Human Rights Committee (AI Index: EUR 62/006/2001)
• Central Asia: No excuses for escalating human rights violations (AI Index: EUR 04/002/2001)