Saidbek Azimov, representative of the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Human Rights, said that there are no “black lists” of extremists in the country. During the meeting of the international press club in Tashkent, he assured the audience of the freedom of opinion held by citizens of Uzbekistan.
Experts in Uzbekistan believe that Azimov’s statement is contrary to reality. “In August of last year, nine Muslim bloggers served 10-15 days in temporary detention centers and paid fines,” an expert from Tashkent said on condition of anonymity. “And the recent wave of arrests of individuals suspected of extremism and terrorism casts doubt on the sincerity of the official’s assurances.”
According to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan, most of those arrested had previously served their sentences for participating in the religious extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir. They were accused of illegal propaganda among the population and the dissemination of religious ideas contrary to the secular state. “The accusatory formulations themselves completely disavow the official propaganda clichés about the right to publicity and democratization in religious matters,” the expert noted.
Saidbek Azimov amazed the audience with the numbers of inspections in prisons. According to him, only during this year about 300 monitoring campaigns were held.
Recall that ACCA has repeatedly published materials about the difficult life of prisoners. It is especially difficult for women. To the published facts of the beating of prisoners in Tashturma, there was no reaction from the government structures.
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