As Uzbekistan prepares to receive a visit from UN
secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon on 12 June, Reporters Without Borders and the
Association for Human Rights in Central Asia call on the authorities to
immediately release Muhammad Bekjanov,
one of the world’s longest held journalists.
Awarded
the Reporters Without Borders press freedom prize in 2013, Bekjanov used to edit Uzbekistan’s main opposition
newspaper. Married, the father of three children and now aged 60, he has been
held for the past 16 years.
As the editor of Erk (Freedom)
in the early 1990s, Bekjanov tried to start a debate on such taboo subjects as
the state the economy, the use of forced labour for the cotton harvest and the
Aral Sea environmental disaster. As result, he became one of the leading
bugbears of President Islam Karimov, who was then forging the authoritarian regime
he still leads.
Karimov took advantage of a series of bombings in Tashkent
in 1999 to silence his critics. Like many pro-democracy activists, Bekjanov was
tried as an accomplice and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His sentence was reduced in 2003 but
in January 2012, just a few days before he was due to be released, he was
sentenced to another four years and eight months in jail on a charge of
disobeying prison officials under article 221 of the criminal code.
Yusuf Ruzimuradov, a fellow Erk
journalist who was arrested at the same time as Bekjanov, is also still being
held.
Prevented from seeing his lawyer
The authorities are currently preventing Bekjanov from
seeing his lawyer, Polina Braunerg. When Braunerg went to the prison with a
permit to see him on 29 April, she was told that he was on a National Security
Service “blacklist” and that no information could be provided about him.
“I waited to see my client for more than five hours in 38-degree
Celsius heat without anyone trying to explain to me where he was,” she said.
Reporters Without Borders and the Association for Human
Rights in Central Asia are extremely concerned about this latest display of
contempt for Bekjanov’s rights.
“Muhammad Bekjanov must be given access to medical and legal
assistance as a matter of urgency,” said Nadezhda Atayeva, the head of the Association for
Human Rights in Central Asia. “The prison conditions have had a grave affect
on his health and we fear they could be fatal.”
Johann Bihr, the head of the Reporters Without Borders
Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, added: “Nearly 16 years after his
initial conviction, it is unacceptable that neither Bekjanov, his family or his
lawyer have been given copies of the court decisions that have been taken in
his case.”
Bekjanov is being held hostage by the regime. His brother,
the well-known poet and government opponent Muhammad Salikh, was the only
person to run against Karimov in the December 1991 presidential election.
Officially, he got less than 13 percent of the votes although independent
observers thought he had won. Violence was used to crush pro-Salikh student
demonstrations and opposition newspapers were quickly closed down.
Tortured, denied medical attention
Bekjanov has been repeatedly
tortured since his arrest.
During the initial investigation, he was beaten all over his body, including
the head and ribs, until he lost consciousness. One of his legs was broken
during a beating in 2003 but he was denied any medical treatment. He has lost
many teeth and much of his hearing as a result of the torture and a serious
case of tuberculosis that was left untreated for a long time.
When his wife, Nina Bekjanova, visited him in 2014, she
noticed that he was suffering from intermittent acute pain as well as permanent
discomfort from an inguinal hernia that developed when he was assigned to
prison work making bricks. His general condition is one of extreme physical and
mental exhaustion.
At least eight
other journalists are
currently detained in connection with their work in Uzbekistan. Many government
opponents, human rights defenders and other civil society activists also
languish in prison, as do thousands of individuals who are arbitrarily accused
of “religious extremism.”
The prolonged detention of political prisoners under article
221 of the criminal code is widespread. False testimony is used to convict
them, in flagrant violation of their right to due process. Sentences are often
extended several times in succession in a manner that is tantamount to life
imprisonment.
Reporters Without Borders and the Association for Human
Rights in Central Asia are sending a copy of this press release to the UN
special rapporteur on torture and to the UN special rapporteur on the promotion
and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
See our previous press releases on this subject:
http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-prize-goes-to-uzbek-27-11-2013,45522.html