Habibulla Ilmuratov pleaded not guilty…

Uznews.net – The Tashkent Region court has upheld a 14-year-long prison term the Yangiyul town court handed down to local lawyer and human rights activist Habibulla Ilmuratov in December 2010. He was again found guilty of storing drugs and other crimes.

At the trial in the Tashkent Region court on 22 February, Ilmuratov pleaded not guilty and said that he had committed no crime and a case against him had been fabricated.

The activist, who is known as Oybek in Yangiyul, said at the trial that he had been on hunger strike for the past week in the Tashkent prison where is serving his 14-year-long term, protesting abuses by police, prosecutors and judges.

A relative said in response to this statement a prosecutor had remarked that the hunger strike had nothing to do with the case.

When the judge asked the activist about the aim of the statement, he said that he wanted it be included in the protocol of the trial. The judge said he was going to do it anyway.

It took 10 minutes for the judge to adopt a decision after hearing the case for three hours. “When the judge went to a retiring room, everyone thought he would come back in no less than an hour, but he reappeared in 10 minutes and said that he decided to uphold the ruling,” the activist’s relative said.

The Yangiyul town court jailed Ilmuratov for 14 years in December 2010, finding him guilty on 13 accounts, ranging from storing drugs to fraud.

Ilmuratov’s lawyers said they would appeal against this ruling, including in the Supreme Court.

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