In September 2016, the man who had ruled Uzbekistan for 27 years died. As often happens when authoritarians pass on, Islam Karimov’s death after so many years in power left questions as to who would fill the vacuum, and whether the country’s new ruler would ease the repressive practices of the past regime. When Shvakat Mirziyoyev quickly emerged as the successor to Karimov, many in the international community believed that there would be some form of liberalisation.
Andrew Anderson, together with the Front Line Defenders Protection Coordinator for Europe & Central Asia, Masha Chitchenkova, visited Uzbekistan in March 2019.
“The prison wardens used to ask me why I was smiling, was I pleased with my sentence? I asked them if smiling was against prison regulations.”
