Uzbekistan: Stop harassing human rights defenders Agzam Turgunov and Dilmurod Saidov

The Uzbekistani authorities should end the harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, Agzam Turgunov and Dilmurod Saidov, and allow them to continue their  human rights work unhindered said Amnesty International (AI), the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), Civil Rights Defenders (CRD) , International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) and Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (PHF).

Despite the expressed commitment made by the authorities that surveillance of peaceful activists would cease, the Uzbek government continues the practice of surveillance and harassment – months after the international human rights community drew attention to the issue and called on the government to safeguard the rights of all rights defenders, the groups said.

Agzam Turgunov and Dilmurod Saidov are under constant surveillance by security officials, and they face harassment, intimidation and threats, including thinly veiled death threats.  The authorities are also prosecuting Turgunov on dubious administrative charges, in what appears to be retribution for his human rights work. Furthermore, the authorities have refused to register Agzam Turgunov’s human rights group. On 28 February 2019, Turgunov, Saidov and former political prisoner Azam Farmonov submitted an application to register the human rights organization, Restoration of Justice. The application was refused on 29 March 2019 on formal grounds relating to the rules of the registration process that were made deliberately unclear.

“The intimidation and harassment of Turgunov appears orchestrated to keep an active independent human rights defender in check and contradicts Tashkent’s expressed intentions to carry out human

rights and justice reform in the country. We are concerned that the authorities may be seeking to put Turgunov and other human rights defenders and activists behind bars again”, Brigitte Dufour from IPHR. “We call on President Mirziyoyev to ensure the safety, independence and operational freedom of all human rights defenders and activists”.

Surveillance and Threats

Agzam Turgunov and Dilmurod Saidov have been under surveillance since last autumn – during a visit to Tashkent last October, IPHR personnel witnessed how plain-clothes individuals stalked the home of Turgunov – and the surveillance is ongoing. On March 25, one of the security service officers surveilling Turgunov ‘s home threatened him, hinting that a car might knock him down. Last year Saidov was threatened that he would be subjected to enforced psychiatric treatment were he not to cease his human rights work. Both have been prevented from leaving their homes for long periods during the day by law enforcement officials.  In addition, Saidov has been targeted by rumours that he suffers from infectious tuberculosis, although he does not have an open form of tuberculosis and he is undergoing treatment.

“Persecution of our local partners is something we take very seriously” said Marius Fossum, Norwegian Helsinki Committee Regional Representative in Central Asia. “The activities of rights campaigners like Turgunov and Saidov are crucial in the ongoing reform process – we urge Tashkent to view them, and all other human rights defenders and activists, as partners for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country instead of a threat.”

Harassment and intimidation

The pattern of judicial harassment of Agzam Turgunov dates back to August 2018. On August 30, 2018 Agzam Turgunov was found guilty by an administrative court of failing to comply with the orders of law-enforcement personnel after he filmed peaceful protesters outside the Supreme Court.[2] Turgunov reports that he simply asked a man in plainclothes whom he believed to be a plain clothed police officer to show his police identification. The court ordered him to pay a fine of 184 300 Uzbek Som (approx. $22 or 20 EUR). Turgunov appealed the decision, and the appeal hearing on November 30 was conducted in violation of international fair trial standards. Turgunov was invited to the judge’s office but  was not informed in advance that it was  a hearing. Judge Hasanov allegedly insulted Turgunov and the witness, and ordered them both to be detained. They were released only later that evening after international intervention.  Both Turgunov and the witness lodged complaints about the behavior of the judge with the Attestation Committee.

On March 30, 2019, Agzam Turgunov received a court summons informing him that the authorities have charged him under articles 41, 180 and 194 of the Administrative Code, defamation, contempt of court and failure to comply with the orders of a law enforcement official respectively. Turgunov told the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia that the authorities charged him with defamation and contempt of court following an appeal hearing on November 30 in which he appealed against the earlier administrative decision.

On 15 April 2019, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee was present as the Administrative Court began hearing Turgunov‘s appeal. On 18 April, the court ruled that the complaint against Judge Hasanov should be considered by the regional court, and that it would wait for the conclusions before continuing the consideration of Turgunov‘s appeal against the original sentence from 30 August 2018. A new date for the court hearing has been set for 14 May 2019.

Agzam Turgunov is at risk of a criminal conviction because in Uzbekistan, if three administrative convictions are obtained in succession, a criminal case may be initiated.

It appears that the Uzbek authorities have opened the two administrative cases against Turgunov in response to his continued efforts to register the human rights organization, Restoration of Justice. 

“The Uzbek authorities recently organized a large-scale celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet a range of easily-resolved human rights challenges continue to slow down genuine change,” said Nadejda Atayeva, President of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia. “If serious about human rights, Tashkent should cease all harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders and peaceful activists; respect the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association including by allowing the registration of human rights organizations.”

The continued harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders and activists threatens Tashkent’s reform efforts and hinders the process of achieving genuine change in the country. Instead of continued harassment, the Uzbek authorities should respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association including by providing a conducive environment for the work of human rights defenders, and allowing the registration of human rights groups.

Uzbekistan: Concern over Reports of Torture of Rashitjon Kadirov and Co-Defendants

Amnesty International, the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), Human Rights Watch (HRW), International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee express deep concern about allegations that Rashitjon Kadirov, former Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan, and his twelve co-defendants have been tortured and suffered other forms of ill-treatment in government custody.

              

The trial of Kadirov and his co-defendants began behind closed doors on 7 January 2019 in Yunusabad District Criminal Court. Kadirov has been charged under 12 articles of the Criminal Code for offences including fraud, bribery and embezzlement. We urge the Uzbekistani authorities to investigate the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment immediately and, if there is credible evidence of ill-treatment, prosecute all those suspected of criminal responsibility in fair trials meeting international standards. We also remind the authorities of their obligations to guarantee the physical and mental wellbeing of Kadirov and his co-defendants, and to ensure that their treatment conforms with international human rights law by which Uzbekistan is bound.

  

Credible reports from sources close to Kadirov indicate that since being detained on 21 February 2018 he has been subjected to psychological abuse, death threats, sleep deprivation and threats against his relatives, to force him to incriminate himself. The sources report that during a 10-month criminal investigation in 2018, more than 40 people, including Kadirov’s relatives, were summoned to testify and that some of them were arbitrarily detained, beaten, and otherwise ill-treated by law enforcement officers. All the witnesses have been released.

  

Three co-defendants released from pre-trial detention in August 2018 remain under house arrest. Kadirov and the remaining nine co-defendants held in pre-trial detention since February 2018 are at continued risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

   

Two credible sources and a witness  who saw Kadirov in detention in August 2018 have reported ill-treatment of Kadirov. The witness stated that they saw a long furrow on Kadirov’s neck, and that Kadirov was noticeably depressed, withdrawn, and barely able to respond to questions. The witness reported that Kadirov was wearing a long-sleeve sweater and despite a request from the witness refused to remove the sweater for further physical inspection.

  

Kadirov told the witness that he had been placed in a cell with three other prisoners who subjected him to psychological pressure and physical abuse including beatings under orders of prison officials. The witness also said that Kadirov stated that officials held a pistol to his head to get him to make a false confession; told him he would be hung, and the death made to look like suicide; kept him naked in solitary confinement without a bed or bedding; regularly deprived him of sleep between 21 February and 18 March 2018; and threatened to frame him for a murder he did not commit.

   

Law enforcement officials have also forced Kadirov to watch as other law enforcement officials beat his son-in-law in an effort to coerce Kadirov to incriminate himself, the witness said. His access to food, medicine and the toilet has reportedly been restricted. In May 2018 Kadirov was taken to the prison hospital for treatment for a short period.

   

Treatment of witnesses and co-defendants in Rashitjon Kadirov’s criminal case

  

Our credible sources, who request anonymity for reasons of security, state that Kadirov’s co-defendants and others temporarily detained as witnesses in connection with the investigation have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and violations of due process. Defendants Ulugbek Khuramov, Ramazan Pulatov, Muhabbat Mirzaeva, Akhmat Ikramov, Ulugbek Sunnatov and Jamshit Faiziev reportedly made statements in court alleging they had been tortured, including with beatings on the soles of the feet and an electric current, including to the genitals.

  

Ramazan Pulatov is said to have suffered a stroke after being interrogated for several hours and threatened with reprisals against his family and has since been unable to speak or walk. He and Miraglam Mirzaev, another defendant, who reportedly suffered a stroke during his arrest, were taken to court by ambulance due to their conditions. Muhabbat Mirzaeva and Yusuf Goipov, another of the defendants, also suffer from particularly serious health problems. We also received credible reports that Shukur Aminov, a witness, was tortured with beatings on his kidneys to force him to provide evidence against the accused.

  

On 3 March 2018 law enforcement officials searched the homes of nine of Kadirov’s relatives. From 5 to 10 March of the same year 13 male relatives were reportedly detained for three days and kept in solitary confinement.  Four of Kadirov’s female relatives were detained for a short time and told to raise and deliver to law enforcement officers a very large sum of money; and on 6 March 2018 another relative was taken to see Kadirov in his cell and this relative was told that if they did not raise and deliver a large amount of money to law enforcement officials their sons would be arrested and held in the cell with Kadirov.

   

At least eight partners and clients of Kadirov’s son Alisherbek Kadirov’s law practice were also detained as witnesses, and some were beaten by law enforcement officials, interrogated for several days without sleep and subjected to psychological pressure to force them to testify against Rashitjon Kadirov. Seven witnesses made statements in court saying that from March to June 2018 they had been subjected to psychological and physical pressure to give statements. They renounced their witness statements in court. Lawyers for the accused reportedly submitted 40 requests for medical examinations and investigations connected with detention conditions, all of which the judge refused.

  

Our credible sources also report, though, that following Amnesty International’s Urgent Action of 8 April 2019, which called for an impartial investigation into concerns that Kadirov and his co-defendants were at high risk of torture and other ill-treatment, the judge ruled that all co-defendants should undergo a medical examination to ascertain whether they had been tortured.

  

While this is a positive step, we remain concerned about 11 and 21 April 2019 statements by the Prosecutor General’s Office following Amnesty International’s Urgent Action, asserting that forensic-medical examinations conducted in the course of investigations had not discovered any evidence of bodily harm.  The statements did not provide any further detail. Such a response cannot be regarded as an independent and impartial investigation of the relevant allegations. Moreover, the conclusions of the forensic-medical examination have not been made available to the defense, and it is unclear who conducted the examinations and when.

Calls to the Uzbekistani authorities

    

Since President Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to office in 2016 he has taken steps to improve Uzbekistan’s human rights record, including presidential decrees and legislative amendments to strengthen the protection of citizens’ rights in judicial processes.

  

Under international law the prohibition of torture is absolute, and applies at all times, in all circumstances, including in times of war or public emergency, and applies to all states irrespective of their treaty obligations as a rule of customary international law. The absolute prohibition of torture applies in all cases, including in those where individuals themselves may have carried out serious crimes and human rights violations.

     

Thus, we remind the government of Uzbekistan about its international obligation to prevent the use of torture and other ill-treatment in all cases without exception. We urge the authorities to open an effective and impartial investigation into the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of Rashitjon Kadirov, his co-defendants and others and, if credible evidence is found, to prosecute all those suspected of criminal responsibility in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts.

  

We also urge the Uzbekistani authorities to promptly confirm the state of health of Rashitjon Kadirov and his co-defendants and to grant him and his co-defendants access to necessary and adequate medical assistance.

   

We call on the Uzbekistani authorities to ensure that the trial of Kadirov and his co-defendants is open to independent observers and experts, to lift the ban on disclosure of information related to the case, and to ensure that defendants are represented by a lawyer of their choice and are guaranteed a free and fair trial.

  

Uzbekistan has an international obligation to protect against executive interference in judicial decisions, as set out in the Constitution of Uzbekistan and international human rights standards that provide for an independent judiciary. We call on the international community to monitor the progress of this case to ensure due process and adherence to international fair trial standards as well as to protect the defendants and witnesses from the risk of torture and other ill-treatment.