Journalist Yusuf Rasulov, the founder of the…

Uznews.net – Uzbek dissidents and opposition members who are living in exile in Sweden have complained to the Swedish police about provocations and threats from a defected national security (SNB) officer.

Anvar Karimov, who was granted asylum in Sweden, is being accused by other exiled Uzbeks of plotting provocations against them in favour of the Uzbek National Security Committee (SNB).

Journalist Yusuf Rasulov, the founder of the yangidunyo.com website, said that Karimov had threatened to hurt his relatives back in Uzbekistan.

The journalist complained to police in Eskilstuna, 80 km from Stockholm, to protect him from threats and attacks from Anvar Karimov, who resides in Ludvika.

Several other exiled Uzbeks complained to police about Karimov, Rasulov said. Police said they held the situation under control.

Rasulov claimed that he had repeatedly witnessed Karimov to telephone Tashkent to report findings of his spying on practising Muslim refugees.

Rasulov

	Anvar Karimov

said when he allowed Karimov to administer his website after he broke a hand in a traffic accident, Karimov posted controversial articles on it. For example, an article titled “Uzbek refugees in Kazakhstan: who are they?” posted on 5 January accused 29 men who had been detained in Almaty and who were facing extradition to Uzbekistan of terrorist activities.

When Rasulov tried to offset Karimov’s influence, the former SNB officer made threats to his family members in Uzbekistan.

“I am convinced that Karimov received all articles from the Uzbek SNB and his aim was to sow discord among opposition members and report everything to Tashkent,” Rasulov said.

Uznews.net has not been able to reach Karimov for comment. Anvar is a grandfather of the founder of the opposition Ozod Dehkonlar movement, Prof Olim Karimov, and a son of human rights activist Gauhar Oripova.

He ended up in Sweden thanks to his wife Dilorom Hudoyberganova, who, as a pupil, became an activist in 2000 when she started defending her brother Iskander, who was sentenced to death.

After leaving school, she joined the Mothers against the Death Penalty and Torture organisation, led by activist Tamara Chikunova, who had worked to abolish the death penalty in Uzbekistan in 2008.

It is not clear how the member of such family turned into an agent of the SNB, but it is obvious that another scandal surrounding the Uzbek opposition in Sweden will not benefit anyone involved in it.

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