Hidirova was arrested on July 28, 2009…

IFEX – News from the international freedom of expression community
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ALERT – UZBEKISTAN

18 August 2009

Rights activist arrested

SOURCE: Human Rights Watch

Activitist defended farmers from corrupt land grabs

(Human Rights Watch/IFEX) – New York, August 18, 2009 – Uzbek authorities
should immediately drop any unsubstantiated criminal charges against
Oyazimhon Hidirova, chairman of the Arnasai Branch of the International
Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, and free her from pre-trial detention,
Human Rights Watch said today.

Hidirova was arrested on July 28, 2009 at the Arnasai District Department
of Internal Affairs on preliminary charges of hooliganism (two counts),
fraud, and tax evasion. Human Rights Watch is concerned that Hidirova’s
arrest and prosecution may be in retaliation for her efforts to expose
corruption by agricultural officials in Arnasai, a district in the Jizzakh
region of Uzbekistan. Since 2004 she has been a member of the International
Human Rights Organization, one of the few human rights groups that have
been permitted to register in Uzbekistan.

“Hidirova’s work to expose official corruption and abuse of farmers may
well have led to her arrest,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia
director at Human Rights Watch. “Over and over again, the Uzbek government
shows it cannot tolerate anyone who speaks out against its corrupt and
abusive practices.”

Hidirova was detained for failing to report to the Department of Internal
Affairs for questioning. She had been summoned after an allegation by the
chairman of the local farm collective, Almaz Sodikov, on June 25, that
Hidirova had attacked him during an altercation, causing him a minor
injury. As a result of the alleged assault, Hidirova was charged with one
count of hooliganism.

The second count of hooliganism (for allegedly insulting a representative
of the regional government and threatening to blow up a regional government
building) and the tax evasion and fraud charges were added after she was
detained, said Ziyodullo Razakov, Hidirova’s public defender (a non-lawyer
who acts alongside a defendant’s lawyer in criminal proceedings) and
chairman of the Jizzakh branch of the International Human Rights
Organization. Razakov believes the additional allegations were added to
imprison her because the sole hooliganism charge would have been
insufficient to justify pre-trial detention.

Razakov says that there is insufficient evidence to substantiate the
additional charges brought against Hidirova. The prosecution alleges that
Hidirova failed to pay 2,971,100 soms (approx. US$1,970) in taxes from 2006
to 2008. The fraud charges arise from allegations made by one of her
workers, who claims that she sold him farm collective land for 4,500,000
soms (approx. US$3,000). Hidirova denies the allegations.

The second count of hooliganism and tax evasion allegations made by
Hidirova’s two accusers are due to be tested starting on August 18, 2009 at
the Arnasai District Department of Internal Affairs, during the “initial
confrontation” (ochana stavka), a part of the initial investigation in
which two witnesses or suspects with different stories confront each other.
Hidirova’s lawyer, Lapas Kamolov, was informed about the ochana stavka on
August 13. Another “initial confrontation” for the fraud charge was held on
July 30.

Following her arrest, Hidirova was held at the Arnasai Detention Facility
until July 31. On that day, Judge Lutfullo Mamarajabov of the Arnasai
District Criminal Court approved her arrest and ordered that Hidirova be
remanded in custody during the investigation, ignoring the defense’s
request that she be allowed to stay at home during the investigation to
care for her two children. Upon hearing that she was to remain in custody
and already weak from a two-day hufnger strike to protest her arrest,
Hidirova fainted. She spent the night in a hospital, and was transferred to
Dustlik Detention Facility the next day.

Kamolov appealed the decision, but on August 3 the Jizzakh Regional
Criminal Court upheld her arrest and detention. The prosecution contended
that there was a risk that she would go into hiding or would interfere in
the investigation. On August 5, Hidirova was moved to the Khavast Detention
Facility.

On August 13, Hidirova’s lawyer got a call from M. Nazirov, who said that
he was the new investigator and that Ilkhom Abdurasulov had been dismissed
from the case. Hidirova reportedly had refused to answer Abdurasulov’s
questions because he is related to Sodikov, the man who made the original
assault allegation against her.

Hidirova’s house was searched on the morning of July 29, the day after she
was arrested. According to Razakov, a police officer, the deputy director
of the Department of Internal Affairs, and Abdurasulov, the investigator
formerly assigned to her case, searched her house. Hidirova’s husband asked
who they were and what they wanted, and they introduced themselves and
showed a search warrant, Razakov said. The men said they were searching for
weapons, narcotics, or banned religious literature and CDs, but nothing was
found or confiscated, Razakov said.

BACKGROUND:
On June 5, Hidirova wrote a letter addressed to President Islam Karimov,
Prosecutor General Rashidjan Kodirov, the country’s ombudsman, Sayora
Rashidova and other officials, raising the issue of repeated, unlawful land
confiscation and re-sale by Faizullo Salokhiddinov, the district hokkim, or
head of the regional government. In her letter, she alleged that
Salokhiddinov had seized 17 hectares of her land and sold it. She also
alleged that Salokhiddinov and District Prosecutor Dilshod Boinazarov had
summoned her and threatened her with imprisonment if she did not “keep
quiet.” The letter said that if the land were not returned to her, she
would carry her protest to the capital.

Ziyodullo Razakov, chairman of the Jizzakh branch of the International
Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, said that Salokhiddinov had
illegally seized about 600 hectares of land in one farm-collective alone.

Hidirova received several responses to her letter, including from the
Office of the Prosecutor General, the Ombudsman, and the National Center
for Human Rights. In the letter issued by the Office of the Prosecutor
General, the Jizzakh regional prosecutor was asked to investigate
Hidirova’s allegations and inform the office of the measures being taken by
July 28. According to Razakov, no action has been taken to date.

http://www.ifex.org/uzbekistan/2009/08/18/hidirova_arrested/

For more information:
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10118
USA
hrwnyc (@) hrw.org
Phone: +1 212 290 4700
Fax: +1 212 736 1300
http://www.hrw.org

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