Sep 282012
 

Karshi-based human rights activist Gulshan Karayeva

27.09.12 20:20

Uzbek police open case against human rights activist Gulshan Karayeva

Today, in the morning police in the town of Karshi intruded into the home of Gulshan Karayeva and took her to a police department where she was told about a criminal case opened against her.

Gulshan Karayeva, the leader of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan branch in Kashkadarya Region, is accused under two Criminal Code articles – 139 “Defamation” and 140 “Insult”.

The Karshi police that opened the case consider that Karayeva slandered and insulted two women in the town Oydin Ortikova and her daughter Barno Adabayeva, by alleging they were prostitutes.

Karayeva said she had never said anything like that about those women. But she acknowledged that she did not cherish kind feelings for them because they helped to detain her brother Sanjar and to open a case against him last summer.

Frightened by herself

Policemen rushed into the home of Gulshan Karayeva at 9 o’clock in the morning today. The human rights activist said she was at home because of the illness of her three children.

Without explaining anything, police demanded Karayeva follow them immediately to a police station. She was only allowed to change her clothes.

At the police station, Karayeva said, she was met by such a big number of policemen who questioned her with utter prejudice that she got frightened of herself.

“They were talking to me as if I were a terrorist and there were so many policemen that I started frightening off myself,” Karayeva said.

After two hours of questioning, Karayeva was sent home after her signing of the written undertaking not to leave the town. She believes the case will surely be brought to the court.

“I was virtually Uzbekistan’s only human rights activist who had never been ‘behind the bar’ nor convicted. It is now my turn,” she said.

Special task unit of women

“A special task unit of women” (STUW) – this joke comes from Uzbekistan and it is already roaming throughout Central Asia ruled by authoritarian regimes.

STUW is a means that has long been used by Uzbek police to persecute opposition-minded people, including dissidents, journalists, human rights activists and opposition members.

Women, most often women of easy virtue, are hired to attack on dissidents or to instigate them to quarrel and fight so that the authorities can have a reason to convict them for “disorderly conduct”, “slander” and “insult”.

In Karayeva’s opinion, it was this role that Oydin Ortikova and Barno Adabayeva played when they picked a quarrel with her brother and sister-in-law on 19 July, which allowed police to accuse Sanjar of disorderly conduct.

In the crosshair for long time

Gulshan Karayeva has been under pressure of the authorities in Kashkadarya for a long time. Provocations made against her included attacks, insults and intimidation through relatives.

On 20 May, Karayeva woke up to find her fence inscribed with various insulting words and pictures by unknown people.

The human rights organisation Human Rights Watch believes that pressure put on Karayeva is an attempt to silence the critic of the authorities.

Uzbekistan, ruled by dictator Islam Karimov since 1989, has only a few free-thinking people remaining in the country. The dictatorial regime aims to get rid of them too.

Uznews.net

 

http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=top&cid=3&nid=20915

 

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