Human rights defender Dauletmurat Tajimuratov subjected to ill-treatment in prison
On 5 June 2023, the Higher Court of Uzbekistan upheld the decision of the Bukhara Regional Court to sentence human rights defender and lawyer Dauletmurat Tajimuratov to sixteen years in prison. The human rights defender was tried along with twenty-two other Karakalpak protesters and his was the only sentence that remained unchanged after the appeals trial. Dauletmurat Tajimuratov will spend the first two years of his sentence in prison and the remaining years in a high-security penal colony.
Dauletmurat Tajimuratov is a Karakalpak human rights defender and lawyer. He is a prominent community leader in the Independent Republic of Karakalpakstan. He worked as an editor at a newspaper named El Khyzmetinde (In the Service of the People). Dauletmurat Tajimuratov’s human rights work includes protection of the rights of the Karakalpak national minority in Uzbekistan. He was one of the leaders of the peaceful protests in Nukus in 2022 aimed at protecting Karakalpakstan’s status as an independent republic.
On 28 November 2023, Dauletmurat Tajimuratov’s lawyer Sergey Mayorov visited the human rights defender in Navoi prison colony. The lawyer reported that Dauletmurat Tajimuratov is being ill-treated by the prison administration. This includes degrading treatment, denial of medical aid, and poor prison conditions. The human rights defender has also been assigned to stricter conditions of imprisonment which correspond to a more serious crime than what he is alleged to have committed, in contravention of Uzbekistani law.
Dauletmurat Tajimuratov’s lawyer reports that he is being humiliated by the prison colony administration. When he is brought food, he is required to thank the administration of the colony aloud and then sing at least 4 verses of the national anthem of Uzbekistan. If he ever objects to do this, it is used as a formal reason to transfer him into solitary confinement with much stricter conditions.
The human rights defender is also kept in poor conditions and is denied medical aid. He is kept in isolation, not allowed to send or receive correspondence, and is frequently placed in solitary confinement where he is not allowed to read newspapers or listen to the radio. For several months, Dauletmurat Tajimuratov had to sleep on a bare mattress, without bed linen, a pillow or a blanket. On 20 October 2023, he was given bed linen for the first time. Furthermore, even though the human rights defender needs medical treatment, does not recieve it due the limited capacity of the prison colony doctors. Instead, the human rights defender is given painkillers that are unsuitable for him and which no longer help with the pain.
Unlike other prisoners, Dauletmurat Tajimuratov has not been given the opportunity to work. Despite this, a report was drawn up in November 2023 stating that he was evading work. The prison administration further intimidated Dauletmurat Tajimuratov by putting the human rights defender in a cell with a man who was sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment for murder.
Earlier, on 31 January 2023, Dauletmurat Tadzhimuratov was sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment for conspiracy to seize power or overthrow the constitutional order of the Republic of Uzbekistan“ (part 4, Article 159); theft by misappropriation or embezzlement (part 3A, Article 167); legalisation of proceeds from criminal activity (Article 243); organisation of riots accompanied by violence (part 3, Article 244); production, storage, distribution or demonstration of materials containing a threat to public safety and public order (paragraphs a, b and d of Article 244-1). Front Line Defenders condemns the sentence as it believes this to be in reprisal to Dauletmurat Tadzhimuratov’s peaceful and legitimate human rights work as a community leader and his calls for a peaceful protest.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned with the reported ill-treatment of human rights defender Dauletmurat Tadzhimuratov. It calls on Uzbekistan authorities to ensure the safety and good health of Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, and to stop the ongoing harassment of the human rights defender by the prison colony administration.
On 5 June 2023, the Higher Court of Uzbekistan upheld the decision of the Bukhara Regional Court to sentence human rights defender and lawyer Dauletmurat Tajimuratov to sixteen years in prison. The human rights defender was tried along with twenty-two other Karakalpak protesters and his was the only sentence that remained unchanged after the appeals trial. Dauletmurat Tajimuratov will spend the first two years of his sentence in prison and the remaining years in a high-security penal colony.
Dauletmurat Tajimuratov is a Karakalpak human rights defender and lawyer. He is a prominent community leader in the Independent Republic of Karakalpakstan. He worked as an editor at a newspaper named El Khyzmetinde (In the Service of the People). Dauletmurat Tajimuratov’s human rights work includes protection of the rights of the Karakalpak national minority in Uzbekistan. He was one of the leaders of the peaceful protests in Nukus in 2022 aimed at protecting Karakalpakstan’s status as an independent republic.
On 5 June 2023, the Higher Court of Uzbekistan considered the appeal of Dauletmurat Tajimuratov’s sentence. He appealed the 31 January 2023 decision of the Bukhara Regional Court to sentence him to sixteen years in prison. The Bukhara Court found the human rights defender guilty of the following charges as stipulated by the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan: conspiracy to seize power or overthrow the constitutional order of the Republic of Uzbekistan (part 4, Article 159); theft by misappropriation or embezzlement (part 3A, Article 167); legalisation of proceeds from criminal activity (Article 243); organisation of riots accompanied by violence (part 3, Article 244); production, storage, distribution or demonstration of materials containing a threat to public safety and public order (paragraphs a, b and d of Article 244-1). The human rights defender’s appeal of this sentence was rejected.
In April 2023, coming up to the appeal, Dauletmurat Tajimuratov’s lawyer Sergey Mayorov called upon the authorities of Uzbekistan to stop the politically motivated persecution of his client. Sergey Mayorov stated that the conditions in the pre-trial detention centre No.11 in Urgench, in the Khorezm region, in which the human rights defender is detained, are unbearable as he is exposed to physical and psychological harassment by the detention facility officers. He reported that the human rights defender Dauletmurat Tajimuratov has been subjected to beatings and had his head forcibly shaven and the facility officers have forced other detainees to intimidate and harass him. His lawyer Sergey Mayorov also mentioned that the human rights defender Dauletmurat Tajimuratov received an old, torn mattress with no padding, a terrible-smelling pillow and sheets of horrible quality, calling the conditions of the pre-trial detention centre unbearable and inhumane.
On 1 July 2022, the human rights defender Dauletmurat Tajimuratov was abducted by Uzbekistani law enforcement officers from his house in Nukus in the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan. The human rights defender was targeted as he called upon the people of Karakalpakstan through his personal blog to peacefully gather in front of the local administration building on 5 July 2022 to protest the recently introduced constitutional amendments on Karakalpakstan’s independence. The protest was sanctioned by the Chairman of the Parliament of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The Uzbekistani authorities detained the human rights defender for a few hours, beat and threatened him and released him shortly after, allegedly due to the public outcry in Nukus. After Dauletmurat Tajimuratov publicly announced the violence against him through his blog on the same day of 1 July 2022, he was detained once again by the Uzbekistani National Security Service.
Front Line Defenders condemns the sentencing of human rights defender and lawyer Dauletmurat Tajimuratov as it believes it is in reprisal against his peaceful and legitimate human rights work. Front Line Defenders believes that the fact that Dauletmurat Tajimuratov’s sentence is the only one of twenty-three that remained unchanged following his appeal evidences a retaliation against the human rights defender’s work as a community leader and his calls for a peaceful protest.
