Uzbek court sentences human rights defender to eight years
Mukhtabar Tojibaeva©Freedom House8 March 2006
A district criminal court in the small town of Dustobad, near the Uzbek capital Tashkent, sentenced a well-known human rights defender and critic of the Andijan massacre, to eight years in prison on 6 March, in a trial that Front Line believes violated international fair trial standards.
Mutabar Tadjibaeva, from Margilan, eastern Uzbekistan was found guilty of a long list of charges, including extortion, land use violations and slander. Ms Tadjibaeva, who is a member of the human rights organisation Fiery Hearts, was also found guilty of membership of an illegal organisation, as her NGO, like the majority of NGOs in Uzbekistan, is not legally “registered”.
“This conviction is politically motivated. Mutabar is being persecuted for her human rights work,” said Front Line Director, Mary Lawlor “Since the Andijan massacre, human rights defenders, journalists and any voices of dissent or criticism are deliberately targeted by the Uzbek authorities. The trial was a sham. Mukhtabar must be released immediately.”
According to Human Rights Watch, Ms Tadjibaeva was denied the right to private consultation with her lawyers and neither she nor her lawyers had adequate time to read through the 5000 pages of case materials against her. The court sent home some defence witnesses before they had a chance to testify and some international observers and local human rights defenders were prevented from entering the courtroom. After the judge delivered the verdict, Ms Tadjibaeva called the trial a “puppet theatre”.
On the evening of 7 October 2005, Ms Tadjibaeva was about to leave her home to travel to Ireland to attend Front Line’s 3rd Platform for Human Rights Defenders, where she intended to speak of the human rights violations committed by the Uzbek state and the increased risk of defending human rights in Uzbekistan since the 13 May massacre in Andijan. At approximately 11pm, over a dozen armed and masked policemen stormed into her home, arrested and charged her with extortion based on a minor financial disagreement with an employee at her fish farm.
Front Line and other human rights organisations believe that her arrest was a politically motivated attempt to prevent her from attending Front Line’s platform and to put a stop to her human rights work and vocal criticism of the Karimov regime.
At the time of her arrest, Front Line Deputy Director, Andrew Anderson said: “We believe that these charges have been fabricated to silence her. It is clear that this is part of a government clampdown on opponents and human rights defenders.”
Uzbekistan has always shown itself to be aggressive to those who voice their dissent but the Andijan massacre has prompted an unprecedented crackdown by the Karimov government on human rights defenders and the independent media. The Uzbek authorities have denied any responsibility for the mass killing of unarmed civilians by security forces in Andijan, and instead have systematically targeted human rights defenders who have tried to expose the truth. Over a dozen have been arrested on politically motivated charges and others have been forced to flee the country. On the same day Ms Tojibaeva was sentenced, an opposition leader was sentenced to 11 years in prison and a court ordered the international human rights organisation Freedom House to shut its offices in Uzbekistan.
In a radio interview, two weeks before she was arrested, Ms Tadjibaeva said that the government did not follow its own laws and that she believed that local authorities had been ordered to silence human rights defenders and political opponents of the government.
Front Line urges the government of Uzbekistan to review the decision to imprison Mutabar Tadjibaeva and to release her unconditionally and immediately.