Europe & Central Asia

APRIL 27, 2005
Posted: May 3, 2005

Aleksey Ametyov, Newsweek
Mikhail Romanov, Moskovsky Komsomolets
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED

A court in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, handed jail sentences to two Russian journalists arrested while covering an opposition rally, according to local and international press reports.

APRIL 27, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005

Marina Kozlova, United Press International
LEGAL ACTION

The Foreign Ministry denied press accreditation to Marina Kozlova, Tashkent correspondent for United Press International (UPI).

New York, April 27, 2005—A court in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, handed brief jail sentences today to two Russian journalists arrested while covering an opposition rally, according to local and international press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was alarmed by the action and called for the release of the two reporters.

The Leninsky Court sentenced Aleksey Ametyov, a correspondent for the Russian edition of Newsweek magazine, to a 10-day term and Mikhail Romanov, a reporter for the Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, to an eight-day term. The two were accused of participating in a rally not sanctioned by the Minsk government, according to press reports.

New York, April 26, 2005—Independent Uzbek journalist Ulugbek Haydarov remained hospitalized today after a severe weekend beating at the doorstep of his home by an assailant who shouted, "I will teach you how to write," according to local and international press reports.

Haydarov suffered a broken collarbone and multiple bruises in the assault reported at 10 p.m. Saturday in the city of Jizzakh, the regional capital of Jizzakh Province, about 100 miles southwest of Tashkent, press reports said. Police are investigating, the Jizzakh Interior Ministry said.

New York, April 25, 2005—Police in the Russian city of Volokolamsk detained Irina Petrushova, editor of the Kazakh opposition weekly Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye, for two days at the request of Kazakh authorities, she told the Committee to Protect Journalists shortly after her release today.

Petrushova, a 2002 winner of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award, said Kazakh authorities had sought to extradite her on alleged tax violations, but the prosecutor- general's office in Moscow determined she was being held improperly. Petrushova, taken into custody Saturday afternoon, was released at 3 p.m. today after the prosecutor ruled that the Kazakh warrant had expired, she said in a telephone interview.

APRIL 23, 2005
Posted: May 3, 2005

Irina Petrushova, Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye
HARASSED, IMPRISONED

Police in the Russian city of Volokolamsk detained Petrushova, editor of the Kazakh opposition weekly Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye, for two days at the request of Kazakh authorities, the journalist told CPJ.

APRIL 23, 2005
Posted: May 3, 2005

Ulugbek Haydarov, freelance
ATTACKED

Haydarov was hospitalized after a severe beating at the doorstep of his home by an assailant who shouted, "I will teach you how to write," according to local and international press reports.

New York, April 18, 2005—An Uzbek reporter for the state-run weekly newspaper Hurriyat (Liberty) has been criminally charged with "undermining the constitutional order" and faces up to 20 years in prison, according to local and international press reports.

Sobirdjon Yakubov, 22, a Muslim, was detained in the capital, Tashkent, on April 11 on suspicions of religious extremism. He was charged three days later, Alisher Sharafutdinov, deputy minister of the interior, announced at a press conference in the capital. The formal charge is based on Yakubov's alleged religious activities. The government did not describe those purported actions in detail, but local reports cited Yakubov's alleged participation in an illegal organization.

APRIL 11, 2005
Posted: May 3, 2005

Sobirdjon Yakubov, Hurriyat
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED

Yakubov, a reporter for the state-run weekly newspaper Hurriyat (Liberty), was criminally charged with "undermining the constitutional order" and faced up to 20 years in prison, according to local and international press reports.

New York, April 8, 2005—Investigators in the capital, Baku, announced late yesterday that they had detained six suspects in the March 2 murder of Elmar Huseynov, founder and editor of the opposition weekly news magazine Monitor, according to local and international press reports.