Uzbekistan: pressure on human rights defenders intensifies ahead of presidential elections

Human rights activist Tatyana Dovlatova reported on the provocative detention of Klara Sakharova; in recent months she has been actively fighting for the rights of residents protesting against the demolition of housing, and retribution for the sudden death of her brother.

On October 8, under a plausible pretext, Klara Sakharova was summoned to the khokimiyat of the Bektemir district of Tashkent. Then she managed to report that she was detained by law enforcement officers and she was accused under two articles of the law, as an employee of a company providing maintenance of the territory.

District police officer Akbarali Suleymanov from the Department of Internal Affairs made unreasonable claims to her about improper cleaning at the site. After remarking that sweeping the streets was not part of her official duties, the inspector threatened to punish her for disobeying an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and called her political.

“Started with the rubbish in the ditch, and ended with the accusation of the attempting to the president’s honor,” said the human rights activist. – Do not intimidate us! We promise legal consequences for the head of the department Ulugbek Ishtambilov and the district police officer Akbarali Suleymanov for abuse of office.”

The Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA, France) and the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR, Belgium) are also concerned about provocations against the human rights defender.

Clara’s brother, the late political prisoner Andrei Kubatin, unable to cope with the consequences of torture, died of the coronavirus on October 20 in 2020. He was in custody for over two years on politically motivated charges.

Klara Sakharova, therefore, takes her arrest as a serious signal. For the past four years, she has been under scrutiny, especially after several pickets demanding to investigate the atrocities in the State Security Service, where her brother was tortured, and to punish the informers. Such activities greatly irritate the security services just before the presidential elections on October 24.

AHRCA and IPHR see another reason for the pressure: Clara became the founder of the independent human rights organization Human Rights House. As ACCA previously informed, a lawsuit has already been filed against the Ministry of Justice after the eighth refusal to officially register the NGO. According to the AHRCA, the initiators of the Human Rights House are included in the unofficial lists of the special services, in which they are considered “prone to protests, criticism of the authorities and unauthorized rallies.”

Dovlatova told the ACCA journalist that shortly before Klara’s arrest, she was also promised to be called to the District Office of Internal Affairs and handcuffed for “insubordination.”

“If I had been silent, then everything could have become reality,” says Dovlatova. “So far, Klara has been without any consequences, she was released an hour after I started harassing the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers with phone calls.”

Over the past few days, law enforcement officers have visited Tatyana Dovlatova and activist Gulbahor Islamova at their homes and demanded that they stop picketing with posters.