In Uzbekistan, participants of the July protests in Karakalpakstan are facing trial. Human rights activists fear that the trial will be biased and call on the authorities to carry out a fair investigation.
Since November 28, the trial of protesters in Karakalpakstan has been taking place in Bukhara. There are 22 people in the dock, including journalist and blogger Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, journalist and founder of the Makan.uz website Lolagul Kallykhanova, activist Azamat Turdanov and others. All of them are accused by the authorities of organising the disorders.
Protests took place in early July in the centre of Karakalpakstan over the authorities’ decision to amend the current constitution and remove articles on Karakalpakstan’s autonomy. The rallies were suppressed by force with the use of firearms. On the 1st and 2nd of July, 516 people were arrested in Nukus. According to official figures, 21 people were killed, including four members of the security forces, and 243 people were injured.
Local and international human rights institutions condemned Uzbekistan for the excessive use of force during the suppression of the protests and called on the Uzbek government to conduct a fair investigation to identify those responsible for the tragedy.
On the positive side, human rights activists note that the authorities have taken some steps to conduct a fair investigation, but they anticipated greater efforts.
In particular, the main issue of constitutional amendments on the status of Karakalpakstan was dropped from the discussion. On 15th July, a special parliamentary commission was established, headed by Feruza Eshmatova, the Supreme Assembly Commissioner for Human Rights. It included 14 members – representatives of government agencies, officials, deputies, civil society representatives and experts.
But its activities were questioned by Human Rights Watch. They said in a statement following the events that “one can hardly count on a truly independent investigation, especially when it comes to the actions of the police and other security agencies”.
Human rights groups from the UN, the U.S., EU countries and Britain have also raised their concerns and called for a fair investigation.
Uzbek authorities released more than 100 individuals arrested for participating in protests shortly after they started. However, human rights activists fear that many more remain imprisoned.
A politically motivated trial?
Among the 22 defendants, at least two are considered informal leaders of the protest rallies. They are Dauletmurat Tajimuratovand Lolagul Kallikhanova.
The Uzbek authorities allowed both human rights activists and media representatives to attend the trial. However, journalists were not allowed into the courtroom itself. They were given a separate room in the same building with a screen and computer monitors where they could follow the proceedings.
Gulnoz Mamarasulova, human rights activist and representative of the Swedish Foundation for Human Rights “Association of Central Asia” in Uzbekistan, in the CABAR.asia interview said they were given the opportunity to visit the detention center where the defendants are being kept. She noted that the human rights defenders did not reveal any specific violations.
“We were in pre-trial detention centers and spoke with the accused. We conducted monitoring to study the conditions of detention and whether there were various types of pressure on them from the investigative authorities. The persons we met did not report any psychological, physical, or other pressure associated with the investigation process. Some of the commission members even checked whether there were injuries on their bodies. In addition, now, there are cameras in the pre-trial detention centers. Everything can be quickly assessed. Also, amid such a political situation, the the investigators are cautious in their investigations», – she said.
Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, the former editor-in-chief of the newspaper El Khyzmetinde and now an attorney for the bureau with the identical name is charged under six articles of the Criminal Code. These include charges of conspiracy to seize power or overthrow the constitutional order; organisation of mass disorder; involvement in deliberate grievous harm to two or more persons and several other serious crimes.
Journalist Lolagul Kallykhanova is charged under four similar articles, except for the two articles that Tajimuratov is charged with: Article 167( paragraph 3 a) (larceny by way of embezzlement of property entrusted to or transferred to disposition of a guilty person in large amounts) and Article 243 (legalization of revenue from criminal activities).
Meanwhile, human rights defenders question whether the charges in the course of the investigation, in particular, the charge under Article 104(3)(a) through Article 28 – complicity in intentional grievous harm inflicted on two or more persons – have been proven.
Alisher Ilkhamov, Director of Central Asia Due Diligence, in an article entitled “The trial of the protesters in Karakalpakstan is reminiscent of Stalinist trials”, published on the Memorial website, says that all the charges are politically motivated, which demonstrates the bias of the court.
Ilkhamov said the mere fact that no security officers who dispersed the rallies were in the dock shows that the trial is unfair.
«One of the key charges is based on a reference to two articles of the Criminal Code, article 104, part 3, and article 28, and arbitrarily linking them to each other. By projecting a combination of these two articles onto the case at hand, it is argued that the accused are allegedly guilty of ‘complicity in intentional grievous harm’. Such a cleverly constructed conclusion is, in my view, absolute nonsense from a legal point of view, opening up space for the most biased interpretations of the law», – Ilkhamov writes.
Noting that all of the defendants, with the exception of Tajimuratov, pleaded guilty, Ilkhamov suggests the possibility that the defendants were tortured or colluded in exchange for Tajimuratov’s conviction.
«The defendants themselves told the court and the public commission earlier that no torture had been used on them. However, in the course of the hearing, one detail emerged indicating that in practice things could have been different. Thus, Tajimuratov stated that he himself was beaten up at least twice by representatives of security agencies in two of his arrests, once on July 1, and again on July 4 after his repeated arrest», – he wrote.
Mamarasulova also stated that they had received complaints from some of the accused persons that they were subjected to cruel treatment during their detention.
«During the detention of some defendants, in particular, during D. Tajimuratov’s detention, he was treated cruelly. According to him, he lost consciousness from beating. The Commission is studying this complaint. In our address to the Prosecutor’s Office, we asked for a legal assessment of all illegal actions»,- she said.
It is not yet known what the verdicts will be and whether all the accused will be found guilty. Trial hearings are still ongoing. Currently, the court is hearing testimony from 22 defendants and their witnesses, Mamarasulova reported.