Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) believes that the arrest,
conviction, and imprisonment of journalist and human rights activist
Ruslan Sharipov are part of a politically motivated campaign to suppress
press freedom in Uzbekistan.
Police and the security service have threatened and harassed Sharipov
for several years because of critical articles he has written for the
Russian news agency Prima and for the Union of Independent Journalists
of Uzbekistan's Web site (www.uiju.org)
describing police abuses and press freedom violations. Many of Sharipov's
articles were published on the Internet in English, making them far
more accessible to an international audience compared with articles
written by other Uzbek journalists and human rights activists.
Police arrested Sharipov, 25, on May 26 in the capital, Tashkent, and
charged him with sodomy, having sexual relations with minors, and managing
prostitutes, according to local and international press reports.
According to international press reports, Sharipov, who is openly gay,
denied the charges of having sexual relations with minors and managing
prostitutes, saying that authorities had threatened him with torture
to get a confession. According to a report by the U.N. special rapporteur
on torture who visited Uzbekistan last year to inspect several prisons,
physical abuse of prisoners is a "systematic" problem in the country.
Furthermore, international human rights organizations report that Uzbek
authorities commonly use fabricated criminal charges to silence government
critics.
Two of Sharipov's colleagues, Oleg Sarapulov and Azamat Mumankulov who
were arrested with him but later released, told human rights activists
that authorities had intimidated them in an effort to force them to
testify against Sharipov, The Associate Press (AP) reported.
While homosexuality remains a criminal offense and gays face regular
police harassment in Uzbekistan, prosecution of such cases is rare.
As a result, local journalists and human rights activists suspect the
charges against Sharipov were an effort to silence his criticism of
authorities.
As an independent organization dedicated to defending press freedom
worldwide, CPJ is particularly concerned about numerous irregularities
that have been reported in Sharipov's trial, which started on July 23
behind closed doors at the Mirzo-Ulugbek district court in Tashkent,
according to local and international press reports.
Judge Ganisher Makhmudov ruled that the trial would be closed to the
public to protect the privacy of minors who were allegedly victims in
the case, AP reported. Human rights advocates, however, believe the
trial was closed to prevent public scrutiny of the case.
According to AP, Sharipov's lawyers argued that their client could not
receive a fair trial because he had criticized the Mirzo-Ulugbek district
court and police in previous news articles. Judge Makhmudov rejected
the lawyers' request to have the trial moved to a different court in
Tashkent.
On August 8, the trial took a bizarre turn when Sharipov reportedly
plead guilty to sodomy, waived his right to legal counsel, and expressed
his readiness to apologize for criticizing President Islam Karimov and
other Uzbek authorities in his articles, according to a member of Sharipov's
defense team. On August 13, the Mirzo-Ulugbek district court found Sharipov
guilty of all three charges and sentenced him to five and a half years
in prison.
Given the U.N.'s allegations that torture is commonplace in Uzbekistan
and that Sharipov has said that authorities threatened him with torture
to pressure him to confess, CPJ believes that Sharipov's confession
is unreliable and should be dismissed, along with the three guilty charges
and the prison sentence.
We call on you to immediately release Ruslan Sharipov from custody and
arrange for an independent and impartial review of the charges and evidence
against him in a safe setting, and to ensure that prosecutors aggressively
investigate whether torture was used to coerce a confession.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We await your reply.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
