The lawyer of Gaybullo Jalilov, a Kashkadarya…

Uznews.net – The lawyer of Gaybullo Jalilov, a Kashkadarya-based human rights activist who has been sentenced to nine years in prison, has failed to receive a court ruling and may miss a 10-day deadline to appeal against it.

Gaybullo Jalilov, of the Kashkadarya Region branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, was found guilty nine days ago, and the deadline to appeal against this sentence will expire tomorrow.

His lawyer Hasan Muhammadiyev needs the verdict in writing to submit the appeal but he has failed to obtain it from the Kashkadarya Region court’s registry office and asked the human rights society to help him.

Jalilov was sentenced by the Kashkadarya Region court in its session held in Bukhara on 18 January after he was found guilty of membership of an extremist religious group which had allegedly planned terrorist attacks in the region.

Neither his relatives, nor his lawyer managed to attend his trial in Bukhara.

The society’s President Abdujalil Boymatov said that allegations against Jalilov that he had planned to blow up the Khanabad airfield, which used to host US troops, were groundless and absurd.

“Jalilov is a religious man – he is a Muslim follower. That he prays does not prove he is involved in terrorist activities,” Boymatov said.

He thinks that by convicting Jalilov the authorities aimed to destroy their human rights organisation.

Apart from Jalilov, two other members of the organisation – Shahlo Rahmanova and Mehriniso Hamdamova – had been detained in Kashkadarya Region and are now awaiting their trials.

Jalilov is now in a detention centre in Bukhara. His lawyer said that his wife went to visit him yesterday.

Police officers detained him on 5 September 2009 when he was returning home after visiting human rights activist Nodir Ahatov, but they did not notify his family about the detention for several days.

He was first detained for 10 days for allegedly resisting police, afterwards charges against him were changed to jail him for nine years.