International organizations defend blogger from Uzbekistan
Amnesty International has launched a campaign to release Nafosat Ollashukurova, a blogger from Uzbekistan, who has been forcibly detained in a neuropsychiatric clinic since late September. Mass petitions of activists and supporters of the international human rights organization is expected to the President Shavkat Mirziyoev demanding the cessation of forced treatment.
On October 4, a representative of the MIA’s Department of Bagatskiy district of Khorezm region told reporters that Nafosat Ollashukurova, previously sentenced to 10 days, was in the regional psychoneurological dispensary. The decision on urgent forced hospitalization could only be made with the approval of the prosecutor.
The blogger has been punished twice for covering a protest rally. Relatives and friends of opposition journalist Mahmud Rajabov decided to walk with him to Tashkent in search of justice. By force, a group of activists was detained and on the night of 23-24 for six hours, the court delivered verdicts. The court sentenced Mahmud Rajabov and Nafosat (Shabnam) Ollashukurova to 10 days of arrest.
The forced stay of Nafosat in the institution caused a wide public outcry. Authorities were forced to send to Khorezm a special commission of the Ombudsman, created at the request of Richard Komenda, head of the Regional Office of the Department of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for Central Asia. Tashkent doctors who arrived with members of the commission confirmed the diagnosis of local specialists – a mental disorder with obvious signs of paranoid syndrome. Relatives of Nafosat strongly disagree with the opinion of doctors.
Earlier, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Uzbekistan to release blogger Nafosat Ollashukurova. Gulnoza Said, CPJ Program Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia, emphasized that “if Uzbekistan wants the world to believe that it is serious about reform, it should not resort to totalitarian practices, such as forcing journalists into a psychiatric hospital”.
