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| Azam Formonov |
Brussels-Dublin-Paris-Geneva
- December 15, 2015 - The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders (FIDH-OMCT), FIDH member organisation "Fiery Hearts Club", the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, the Uzbek-German
Forum for Human Rights, Front Line Defenders and the International Partnership
for Human Rights (IPHR) join Azam Formonov's family in wishing Azam strength
for his 37th birthday which he spent locked up in prison. The health of Uzbek
human rights defender has degraded remarkably during the ten years he has spent
behind bars. Unless the international and business communities dealing with
Uzbekistan make a decisive breakthrough in urging the government to stop
maltreating its citizens and liberate Azam Formonov along with dozens of
prisoners of conscience, he will languish in prison for at least another four
years. His only crime is his activism in the association Human Rights Society
of Uzbekistan (HRSU).
Head of the
regional branch of the HRSU, Mr. Azam Formonov has worked to defend
farmers' rights. A few days before his arrest in
April 2006, he intended to help two farmers defend their rights against a
state-owned petrol company. Once detained, Azam Formonov was held incommunicado
for weeks and tortured to confess to charges of extortion. Investigators
suffocated him with gas masks, and beat him repeatedly with clubs for over a
week. Stripped of the right to legal defense of his choice, he was sentenced to
nine years in prison in June 2006.
“We reiterate
our urgent call to countries and corporations dealing with Uzbekistan to use
their leverage in order to liberate Azam Formonov and all those who languish in
prisons for having stood up for citizen's rights", insisted FIDH
President Karim Lahidji.
A few days ahead of
his due release in April 2015, he was tried without legal representation for
allegedly violating detention facility rules and sentenced to another five
years and 26 days on fabricated charges. Azam Formonov thus joined other Uzbek
prisoners of conscience, whose prison sentences have been arbitrarily extended
on the basis of vague accusations of “violating prison rules”. The sentences of
some human rights defenders have been prolonged so many times that their prison
terms have become de facto life imprisonment.
"The
practice of extending sentences for alleged violation of prison rules is a
severe breach of human rights. The relevant article of the Criminal Code must
be repealed as a matter of urgency", stressed Mutabar Tadjibaeva,
President of "Fiery Hearts Club".
Detained in a
detention facility in Jaslyk known as the "death zone" for its
extremely harsh climate and severe detention conditions, Azam Formonov has
reported being tortured, beaten and often placed in solitary confinement with
no heating. He suffers from severe kidney pains, that are exacerbated by the
harsh, cold weather, and poor heating in cells in winter, while in summer the
temperature can go up to 40 degrees, unbearable in tiny, overcrowded and poorly
ventilated cells.
“During his
nine-years' imprisonment, Mr. Formonov has been spreading the information about
the ill-treatment in his jail without possibility to appeal to any authority.
In a letter written in May 2015, he described the terrifying conditions of
detention and tortures he endured. We are extremely concerned for the physical
and psychological integrity of Azam Formonov and other human rights defenders
in jail”, said Mary Lawlor, director of Front Line Defenders.
“The lack of
any sort of investigation into the ill-treatment of Mr. Formonov is completely
unacceptable and evidences the catastrophic situation of human rights in the
country”, declared Gerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General.
Azam Formonov is
not receiving the necessary medical treatment. His wife, caring for their two
children alone, is permitted to visit her husband less often than specified in
the prison rules. She spends days in the prison zone before being allowed to
see her husband.
The situation in
Uzbekistan remains perilous for human rights defenders who are constantly
persecuted, denied their right to a fair trial and imprisoned on fabricated
charges. The authorities’ fierce grip on society eliminates any
critical voices that could expose the country's violations of human rights:
forced labour and continued child slavery in cotton fields, forced
sterilisation of women, the absence of independent media and political
participation, arbitrary detentions, and torture. The Russian human rights
watchdog Human Rights Center "Memorial" puts the figure at 10,000,
while Uzbek human rights organisations report more than 12,000 people detained
on politically motivated charges.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders (OBS) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to intervene to
prevent or remedy to situations of repression against human rights defenders.
