29th June 2004 In 2003, Sharipov was sentenced to four years in prison for homosexuality (under article 120 of the criminal code) and for allegedly having sex with a minor. Under duress he pleaded guilty to these charges on 8 August 2003, however in a letter to UN secretary general Kofi Annan he said he had been forced after undergoing physical and psychological torture. Sharipov has never denied his bisexuality but he claims that he had never met the adolescents who were alleged to have been his victims.

For several years, Sharipov has been target of harassment aimed at getting him to give up his human rights activities and articles criticising the authorities.

Ruslan Sharipov was arrested on 29 May 2003. During the first days of his detention, the arresting officers threatened Sharipov with physical violence and Sharipov has confirmed that he was tortured whilst in prison.

Article 120 violates the basic human rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Uzbekistan ratified in 1996. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the Covenant, has found that laws punishing adult consensual homosexual acts violate the Covenant’s guarantees of non discrimination and privacy and has held that sexual orientation is a status protected from discrimination by articles 2 and 26 of the Covenant.