On January 26, Tatyana Dovlatova was attacked and tried to knock out her smartphone by the chairman of the citizens’ assembly in Rakatbashi mahalla. The human rights activist broadcast live on a social network and talked about lawlessness in this part of Tashkent, where Sattor Rakhimov feels like a sovereign owner and illegally disposes of real estate on the territory of the assembly.
“In 2018, at my request, the election of the chairman, which Rakhimov allegedly won, was declared illegal by the court, but without consequences. However, he still holds this position with high patronage despite numerous protests from our initiative group,” the activist told ACCA journalist.
During the stream, several men surrounded her, and then the incident occurred. Tatyana notes that the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who were standing nearby, didn’t even try to intervene and stop the aggressor. In her opinion, only the live broadcast prevented a real beating.
As ACCA previously reported, Dovlatova had to fight off claims for libel, hooliganism and other ‘administrative violations’ nine times in recent years. She had to look for money to pay fines. Finally, she even had to sell her apartment. In one of the complaints staged by the security forces, they even demanded that “since Dovlatova is a human rights activist, she should be placed in a psychiatric hospital.”
“The activity of human rights activists in the country is the most noticeable. It can be said with certainty that Uzbek human rights protection has a female face,” the ACCA expert notes.
Recently, the editors published information about the provocative detention of Klara Sakharova. In recent months, she has actively fought for the rights of residents protesting against the demolition of housing, and retribution for the sudden death of her brother.
Now in the City Court for criminal cases of Almalyk (Tashkent region), a trial is underway in the case of 70-year-old social activist Karomat Ashirova from Angren, who was arrested in June 2021. She was charged with five criminal articles and has been in custody since then. On January 18, the next (fifth) court hearing, scheduled earlier and postponed without explanation, took place. Also, without any explanation, the next one, scheduled for January 21, was postponed. According to the relatives of the defendant, it was decided to hold the trial of women not in their native Angren, but in Almalyk at the insistence of the Regional Court of Tashkent. The reasons, as usually happens in such situations, are silent; presumably, in order to avoid the gathering of a large support group and the associated excitement, which is highly undesirable for the authorities.
The independent online media Asiaterra has at its disposal the text of the indictment drawn up by the Prosecutor’s Office of Angren city. It describes the crimes of a 70-year-old activist: “Ashirova Karomat Mirsoatovna, for many years, made illegal demands to state authorities and local self-government on the problems of citizens who weren’t related to her, and [engaged in] holding illegal rallies to satisfy these demands, discredited Angren city administration and other state organizations.”
The mother of a large family, and already the grandmother, was brought to the courtroom in handcuffs, like a dangerous terrorist. Video and audio recording were prohibited during the process, there were almost no journalists and bloggers (except for one accredited journalist from Tashkent).
44-year-old social activist Zukhra Abdurakhmanova, also charged under the same articles, is also imprisoned with her. For seven months, the women were not given a single visit with their families.
On July 21, 2021, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office didn’t want to comment to ACCA on the detention of the elderly woman Karomat Ashirova in Angren (Tashkent region). At least 40 armed special forces soldiers took part in the military operation against the 70-year-old activist. All her alleged guilt lies in defending the rights of citizens in numerous violations of the law. She is the author of numerous letters to the President about the arbitrariness of local authorities.
The ACCA expert suggests that the detention of a woman of such advanced age, unprecedented even for Uzbekistan, is “an indicator of fear of large-scale disorders and protests, which are still local in nature”.
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