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Introduction Defenders In Custody Active Defenders Defenders Released

Tojibaeva
  

Umida Niazova, (b. 1974), was a human rights defender and independent journalist from Tashkent. She was a regular contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other new agencies. From 2005-2006, she worked as a translator for Human Rights Watch’s Tashkent representative office. Previously, she had worked with such international NGOs as Freedom House and Internews.

Uzbek authorities initially detained Niazova on December 21, 2006 at the Tashkent airport, on her return from a seminar in Bishkek. She was questioned at length, and her laptop and passport were confiscated. She was released later that day, but the authorities continued to investigate her on suspicion of criminal and administrative charges. Her laptop was sent for “expert analysis” to determine whether it contained subversive material.

Niazova left Uzbekistan for neighboring Kyrgyzstan in early January 2007. Shortly thereafter she and her lawyer were informed that based on an examination of her laptop, she would not face any criminal charges and could collect he passport and computer. On January 22, as she was traveling back to Tashkent, Niazova was arrested by the Uzbek authorities, held incommunicado for four days, and faced politically motivated charges of smuggling (article 246,part 1 of the Uzbek criminal code) and illegally crossing the border (article 223, part 1). She was sentenced to seven years in prison on May 1, 2007. Niazova was released on parole on May 8, 2007. Her prison term was commuted to a seven-year suspended sentence.

 
Turaev
  

Gulbahor Turaeva, (b. 1962), is a doctor from Andijan and member of the nongovernmental organization Anima-kor, which works to protect the rights of medical doctors and their patients. Turaeva was arrested on January 14, 2007 at the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. Border guards seized from her a number of books by an exiled opposition leader, Muhammed Salih, that are unofficially prohibited.

Turaeva was convicted on charges of anti-constitutional activities (article 159) and slander (article 139) on April 27, 2007 and sentenced with a six year prison term. On May 7, 2007, Turaeva was sentenced for a second time with new slander charges and fined 648,00 soms (about U.S. $515). On June 12, 2007, she was released on parole. An appeals court commuted her prison term to a six-year suspended sentence.

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Turaeva was among the human rights defenders who questioned the government’s version of the Andijan massacre on May 13, 2005. On May 27, 2005 Turaeva was detained and held in the Andijan prosecutor’s office for seventeen hours, where she was denied food and access to a lawyer. A prosecutor’s office official accused her of spreading lies about the Andijan killings and of “anti-constitutional activities.”