On February 16, the Regional Court of Samarkand for Criminal Cases confirmed the legality of the punishment of Anastasia Pavlenko. On January 18, the City Court recognized her as a slanderer and fined her $530.
The journalist suffered for her sincere desire to save the house of Pavel Benkov, the founder of easel painting in Uzbekistan, from demolition. The plaintiff and the owner of the house tried to actually destroy the building from the list of cultural heritage for the sake of large-scale construction, but this was prevented by the publications of Anastasia, the deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Vestnik [Bulletin] of Samarkand” and the administrator of the initiative group “Save Samarkand” on the social network. New construction has been suspended.
As Anastasia wrote on the social network, the judge didn’t bother to delve into the essence of her actions, there was a complete disregard for her professional activities and the fulfillment of civic duty, lack of knowledge and ignorance of the country’s legislation. The post on Facebook and the article in newspaper that caused the lawsuit can still be read, but the judge didn’t even demand to remove the publications, which only confirms an ordered nature of the case.
“The journalist did her job very correctly. In the article, she only mentions facts, cites experts,” Farida Sharif, a blogger and administrator of Tashkent demolition group, comments the situation for ACCA. “Which of the words in the article could be considered slander? How was the owner slandered? It’s unclear. It’s terrible that journalists are persecuted in Uzbekistan for their professional activities.”
Anastasia rightfully claims that she prevented an offense against a cultural heritage site, pointed out to government agencies and the public about the vandalism of private individuals, which was reflected in the abolition of illegal permits at the local level, the development of a new construction project on the territory of the famous courtyard in Benkov’s house.
“Now, having personally encountered the judicial system of the republic,” Anastasia exclaims, being a representative of the state media, “I can bravely say: in Uzbekistan, the rights of journalists are not protected – neither by the Agency for Information and Mass Communications, nor by the Creative Union of Journalists!”
During the process, she had to demand the participation of representatives of these organizations in the hearings, but the judge considered the procedure unnecessary and rejected the petition. The leadership of the Public Fund for the Support and Development of National Mass Media didn’t show any interest in the process either.
In her publication, Anastasia noted the fact that in court “they talk about the inviolability of private property, but many demolition and forced eviction decisions are issued. On the other hand, concerning private property with an encumbrance, owned by ignorant nouveaux riches who violate the law on the protection of historical heritage, it turns out that it’s impossible to even look at and fix their outrages without their permission”.
The journalist claims that “those who issued the judgment today gave official carte blanche to the destroyers and vandals in Samarkand region.” On the eve of the trial, Anastasia exposed the authorities of actually encouraging the ugly restoration of the mausoleums of Shakhi-Zinda necropolis.
Earlier, ACCA published an article about the arrest of Ruslan Khairnurov on December 27, 2021. He is an associate of the journalist and an activist of the initiative group “Save Samarkand”. He was also charged under Article 139 of the Criminal Code (“Slander”).
On December 31, the Regional Criminal Court of Samarkand commuted the activist’s preventive measure from detention to house arrest, confirming that “there are no documents in the case file confirming that the accused is hiding from the investigation”. And even such a decision after the appeal was also illegal, which only confirms the ordered nature of the persecution of the activist.
Anastasia intends to reach the Supreme Court, relying on a support group of 30 people from local and foreign activists.
In the meantime, on February 15, President Mirziyoyev signed a law according to which the following additions appeared in Article 132 of the Criminal Code: “Actions to destroy, destroy or damage objects of material cultural heritage taken under state protection, committed repeatedly or by a dangerous recidivist, causing major damage, according to prior conspiracy by a group of persons, shall be punishable by a fine of 300 to 500 basic estimate indicators, or restraint of liberty from three to five years, or imprisonment from three to five years; the same actions committed with the infliction of especially large damage are punishable by imprisonment from five to seven years”.
Leave feedback about this