Jun 102011
 

Uzbekistan: Travel ban imposed on human rights defender Mr Dmitry Tikhonov

Posted on 2011/06/10

On 23 May 2011, Mr Dmitry Tikhonov was refused permission to board a plane going from Tashkent to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Dmitry Tikhonov is a member of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan and actively monitors the human rights situation in the town of Angren in the Tashkent region. The Human Rights Alliance works on several human rights issues including torture, access to justice, right to a fair trial and economic and social rights. It is particularly active in organising street actions and advocating the right to peaceful assemblies.

Further Information

On 23 May 2011, the Border Service of the Tashkent airport cancelled Dmitry Tikhonov’s plane ticket from Tashkent to Almaty, on the basis that the Judicial Department had imposed a ban on his departure from Uzbekistan. The next day, at a tribunal in the town of Angren he learnt that the travel ban against him was introduced due to the fact that he had not paid a fine imposed on him by an administrative court following his participation in a peaceful rally.

Uzbekistan controls the departure of its citizens through a special stamp system, called ‘departure’s visa’ for travelling abroad. Refusing to grant this stamp can be used as punishment by the authorities. Several human rights defenders in the past have been denied such stamps under various pretexts. On 26 May 2010, Dmitry Tikhonov submitted the documents required to apply for a ‘departure’s visa’. Under Uzbek legislation, the stamp should be issued or the applicant should be notified of the refusal to issue it within 15 days, but Dmitry Tikhonov was never informed of either decision.

On 6 December 2010, he participated in a peaceful rally on the Independence square in Tashkent to protest against the lack of an official response and de facto prohibition to leave Uzbekistan. He was arrested among other protesters and the same day the Administrative Court convicted them under Article 201, part 1 of the Administrative Code of Uzbekistan. Dmitry Tikhonov was sentenced to a fine of 3,481,450 sum (approximately 2200 USD). This amount is extremely excessive and unusual in Uzbekistan. The bailiff stated that she could not remember such a substantial fine in the 10 years of her career. Dimitry Tikhonov cannot pay this fine. The imposition of the travel ban on him has meant that he was unable to take up a position on an international scientific expedition and therefore he remains unemployed.

After ten months, Dmitry Tikhonov was eventually given the stamp allowing him to go abroad in March 2011. It is believed that the stamp was given to him only because the authorities knew he could not leave the country in any event due to the unpaid fine remaining outstanding. To date, Dmitry Tikhonov is prohibited from travelling.

Front Line believes that the travel ban has been imposed on Dmitry Tikhonov because of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights. The administrative fine he was subjected to is excessive and was the result of the exercise of his constitutional rights to freedom of peaceful assembly.

http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/15299

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