“The blogger Miraziz Bazarov is now involved in a criminal case,” said Nadejda Atayeva, the president of the Association “Human Rights in Central Asia”. He is accused of libel. The case was opened on April 22.
The lawsuit was filed by teachers from the school №110 in Tashkent. They were outraged by the long-standing and unaddressed post on the social network “School is a place where old slaves and losers teach children to be slaves and losers”.
On April 29, the authorities decided to put Bazarov under house arrest. However, at the time of writing, he was still in the building of the police department of Tashkent city, where the blogger was brought from the hospital.
The teachers were not embarrassed by the fact that the blogger was at the hospital after being severely beaten and was not slandering anyone in particular. He only accuses the authorities of misuse of loans from international financial organizations, casts doubt on the integrity of the presidential elections in October, speaks impartially about the capital’s mayor. In retaliation, someone then posted information on the Internet about the provision of sex services by Bazarov.
The authorities were especially outraged by the position of a supporter of youth subcultures on the LGBT problem. The blogger has repeatedly expressed his opinion about the need to decriminalize homosexuality. The authorities revealingly didn’t react to the extremist posts of users calling for reprisals against Miraziz and threatening to rape the blogger’s mother.
Bloggers with religious emotionality accused Miraziz of promoting homosexuality, slandering Islam, promoting youth subcultures (anime and kpop music) as portents of the spread of the LGBT movement in the country. The blogger beat off with texts about the pseudo-religiousness of network activists in the service of the State Security Service. In response, he was told personal data, mobile phone numbers of relatives, the number of the access code to the entrance, etc. Such kind of information is available only to special services.
Miraziz organized several gatherings of anime and kpop lovers, indiscriminately called representatives of sexual minorities in blogs. The last meeting took place on March 26. And on March 28 in the center of Tashkent, with the connivance of law enforcement agencies, people gathered for an unauthorized rally.
At least 20 young Muslims mistook the young man and the girl for “perverts” and began to beat them. The security forces were in no hurry to beat off the couple from the brutal crowd. In the evening of the same day, three unknown persons beat Miraziz. Doctors recorded craniocerebral trauma, eye damage, severe contusion and an open fracture of the tibia.
On April 27, it became known that Miraziz was actually under arrest at the hospital.
The Association “Human Rights in Central Asia” conducted its own investigation and concluded that the harassment and attack on the blogger was well planned. The attackers haven’t yet been found. The hooligans haven’t been punished a month after the initiation of the case. The hate language of the blogger’s blackeners was ignored by the authorities, which only adds to the argument in favor of a well-staged attack.
On April 28, the international organizations issued the statement. First signatories are: Association “Droits de l’Homme en Asie Centrale”, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), Amnesty International Eastern Europe & Central Asia, Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, Justice for Journalists Foundation, Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Press Freedom Now. According to them, the authorities of Uzbekistan could fabricate a case against Bazarov for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
“In 2020, Bazarov criticized the lack of transparency and public control over the use of loans, related to COVID-19, from the International Monitoring Fund and the Asian Development Bank for Uzbekistan. They were widely disseminated on social networks,” human rights defenders summarize.
The signatories are confident that “his posts in defense of LGBTI people included criticism of double standards by the officials of Uzbekistan. Consensual sex between adult men is a criminal offense in Uzbekistan and is punishable by up to three years in prison”.
Through the media and controlled bloggers, the authorities instill in the population the danger of youth subcultures incompatible with spirituality. The President Mirziyoev, unexpectedly for everyone, reacted this way to the polls of 50 thousand young people in the capital and six regions.
“Based on suggestions and wishes, youth programs have been approved in regions and cities. The State Security Service is entrusted with the task of implementing these programs, as well as systematically studying the social problems of youth,” he said.
The President emphasized that, given the importance of the task, the State Security Service would monitor the implementation of the programs.
“The special services will assist and, if necessary, will force the responsible persons to fulfill the assigned task,” he concluded.
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