Uzbekistan: The court upheld the sentence of the 75-year-old oppositionist

On March 16, the City Court of Tashkent upheld the verdict of the first instance, according to which Vazira Egamberdiyeva must pay a fine of $125.

On February 24, in the administrative court of Mirzo-Ulugbek district of the capital, she was found guilty of committing an offense under part 1 of article 202 (“Creating conditions for holding unauthorized meetings, rallies, street processions and demonstrations”) of the Code of Administrative Responsibility of Uzbekistan.

The fault of the 75-year-old political activist was that on January 19 of this year, together with like-minded people in her house, she discussed the events in Kazakhstan and the realities of Uzbekistan. And the reason for initiating an administrative case was ‘the appeal of her neighbors to the Department for coordinating the activities of the internal affairs bodies’. Lawyer Rukhiddin Kamilov was unable to interrogate the victims and witnesses at the first court session.

Public defender Agzam Turgunov spoke at the trial. “We have given strong arguments, justified by the laws of Uzbekistan. The judge listened carefully and calmly, then there was a debate, and only after that she retired to the conference room,” he told ACCA. “She was there for a long time. Probably, the conversations with her superiors were long.”

Participants of the January meeting didn’t come to the court. According to Turgunov, “they were forbidden to do this under the threat of applying Article 159 (Encroachment on the constitutional order of the Republic of Uzbekistan) of the Criminal Code.”

Now the defense of the oppositionist intends to appeal to the Supreme Court of the country with a cassation.

Vazira Egamberdiyeva is a functionary of the unregistered opposition party “Hakikat va Tarakkiyot”, founded by Professor Khidirnazar Allakulov. In June 2021, the Ministry of Justice officially denied him registration of the party due to violations in the collection of signatures and their insufficient number.

Earlier, ACCA wrote about how the authorities punished the party activist and his family with eviction from the house. On July 24, 2021, the authorities evicted the family of Muhammadamin Ermatov (14 people) from the house, befo/wphe owners to sue him as a member of the party initiative group.