Europe & Central Asia

AUGUST 30, 2005
Posted September 2, 2005

Nosir Zokirov, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
IMPRISONED

Nosir Zokirov, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was sentenced to six months in prison for insulting a security officer. Zokirov, an Uzbek who has worked for the radio's local language service for eight years, was summoned to court in the eastern city of Namangan on August 26 on charges of insulting a National Security Service (NSS) officer in a telephone call. Zokirov was detained, tried without counsel or witnesses, sentenced and imprisoned all on August 26.

New York, August 30, 2005—An Uzbek court sentenced a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to six months in prison for insulting a security officer, the radio said today. Nosir Zokirov, an Uzbek who has worked for the radio's local language service for eight years, was summoned to court in the eastern city of Namangan on August 26 on charges of insulting a National Security Service (NSS) officer in a telephone call, RFE/RL said in a statement. Zokirov was detained, tried without counsel or witnesses, sentenced and imprisoned all on August 26.

AUGUST 25, 2005
Posted: August 29, 2005

Mukhtor Bokizoda, Nerui Sukhan
LEGAL ACTION

A judge in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, convicted the editor of the shuttered opposition newspaper on theft charges, sentencing him to two years of "corrective" labor, fining him, and garnishing part of his wages.

New York, August 25, 2005—A judge in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, convicted the editor of a shuttered opposition newspaper on theft charges today, sentencing him to two years of "corrective" labor, fining him, and garnishing part of his wages. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the verdict, calling the charges politically motivated.

Mukhtor Bokizoda told CPJ he would appeal today's verdict, which comes several weeks after the government shut down the weekly Nerui Sukhan (Power of the Word). Bokizoda is also chairman of the Foundation for the Memory and Protection of Journalists, a press freedom group.

New York, August 24, 2005—A court in the central Russian city of Smolensk has released independent journalist Nikolai Goshko who was sentenced in June to five years in a prison camp for criminal defamation. Goshko told CPJ today that he was surprised by the August 19 release order, which came after the prosecution agreed to change criminal defamation to the lesser charge of criminal insult.

New York, August 17, 2005—A district court in Moscow upheld the conviction of editor and writer Pavel Lyuzakov on Tuesday, sentencing him to two years in a prison colony for illegal possession of a pistol. The journalist and colleagues say the charges against him were politically motivated and filed in retaliation for his criticism of Kremlin policies in Chechnya, according to the Moscow business daily Kommersant.

AUGUST 16, 2005
Posted October 31, 2005

Pavel Morozov, Andrei Obozov, Oleg Minich
HARASSED, CENSORED

On August 16, the city prosecutor's office in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, launched a criminal case against a Web site that published a series of animated Internet cartoons satirizing Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The case was opened under Article 367 of the Belarusian penal code, "Defaming the President of the Republic of Belarus," according to local press reports.

New York, August 15, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the deportation of Russian journalist Igor Rotar, who was detained by Uzbek authorities in Tashkent on Thursday and put on a plane bound for Almaty, Kazakhstan, late the next day, according to local and international press reports.

Uzbek security and immigration officials detained Rotar when he arrived at the Tashkent airport, holding him incommunicado for most of two days. In an interview today with the Moscow-based news Web site Fergana.ru, Rotar said that he received no explanation for his detention and that he refused to leave the country voluntarily. Rotar had traveled to Uzbekistan on assignment for Forum 18, a human rights news Web site based in Oslo, Norway.

New York, August 12, 2005—Uzbek authorities at the airport in the capital, Tashkent, detained Russian journalist Igor Rotar on Thursday and were holding him today, according to his news organization and international press reports.

Rotar, a Central Asia correspondent for several Russian newspapers and Western Web sites, was detained by border guards after arriving at 10:25 a.m. on a flight from neighboring Kyrgyzstan, according to Forum 18, a human rights news Web site based in Oslo, Norway. Rotar was on a routine assignment for Forum 18 when he was detained, Assistant Editor John Kinahan told the Committee to Protect Journalists.