Apr 212009
 
Lola Karimova-Tillayeva
21.04.09 16:05
Uzbek president’s second daughter enters Paris’s beau monde
Uznews.net – Uzbek President Islam Karimov must be proud of his daughters who are Uzbekistan’s ambassadors to UN agencies in Europe where they have become friends of A-list cinema and show business stars.

The president’s youngest daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillayeva, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to UNESCO, has hosted a reception in Paris on 8 April to present her new Uzbekistan 2020 charity fund.

Her website reported that the former First Lady of France Bernadette Chirac and the incumbent French president’s elder brother, Guillaume Sarkozy, a textile producer, had attended the reception.

French actor Alain Delon even kissed her hand, flattering her self-esteem.

The Uzbek president’s daughter was all glamorous, wearing diamonds and carrying a little silver bag.

What is it about the Uzbekistan 2020 fund that makes it possible for it to gather France’s beau monde around the daughter of one of the world’s most brutal dictators?

Karimova-Tillayeva’s website says that the fund aims to hold cultural and intellectual exchange between Uzbekistan and Europe and support children’s education and development in Uzbekistan. These aims should be achieved by 2020, which is why the fund is called Uzbekistan 2020.

The successful advancement of Lola Karimova and her sister Gulnara Karimova, who is Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the UN Office at Geneva, in the European high society is thanks to Europeans’ unawareness about the situation in Uzbekistan, believes Uzbek human rights activist Mutabar Tajibayeva, who is now in Paris.

“The French people know almost nothing about our country and that Gulnara and Lola are the daughters of the dictator who is responsible for the massacre of people in Andijan in 2005 and for the terrible human rights and economic situation in the country,” Tajibayeva said. Continue reading »

Mar 252009
 
Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele and Gulnara Karimova
25.03.09 10:54
Chopard and Guli blood diamonds
Uznews.net – Uzbek human rights activist Abdujalil Boymatov has urged Chopard jewellery and watch company to reconsider its relations with Gulnara Karimova and plans to promote the Guli brand in order to avoid association with blood diamonds.

Boimatov said he sent a letter to the company in which he expressed his bewilderment about its cooperation with the Uzbek president’s daughter Gulnara Karimova. Continue reading »

Feb 192009
 

Appeal

Independent HRDs from Uzbekistan are worried and anxious about the news they are receiving about the dreadful situation in which prisoners of conscience find themselves in their places of detention. Many of them are being bullied by fanatical staff from penal colonies, and the tyrannical supervisors in the prisons subject them to all sorts of provocations. They do not receive medical assistance in time, and on many occasions their relatives have been denied permission to see them for various far-fetched reasons. Continue reading »

Feb 062009
 
People and the State
Alisher Karamatov; photo: HRSU
06.02.09 11:49
Human Rights Watch calls for release of Uzbek activist
Uznews.net – Human Rights Watch has urged Uzbekistan to immediately release convicted human rights activist Alisher Karamatov who is facing torture in prison.

It also demanded that the authorities investigate an incident when prison officers tortured him in freezing conditions on 30 December 2008.

His wife Namuna Karamatova said that prison guards had tortured him to confess to a disciplinary violation – attending prayers.

She complained that because of tuberculosis he was transferred from the Karshi prison to the Tashkent prison’s hospital in autumn 2008 and now he spat blood. Continue reading »

Oct 312008
 

Uzbekistan – Alleged torture and ill-treatment of imprisoned human rights defender

Posted on 2008/10/31

Front Line is deeply concerned by the health conditions of the imprisoned human rights defender Abdurasul Khudoynazarov who tried to commit suicide on 1 September 2008, reportedly as a result of the harsh conditions of detention he endures in the N64/1 Prison in Bekabat, Tashkent region. Abdurasul Khudoynazarov, a member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) “Ezgulik”, was arrested on 26 June 2005, and condemned to nine years imprisonment. Continue reading »

Oct 212008
 
Freedom of Speech < back
Jamshid Karimov; photo: ferghana.ru
21.10.08 23:31
Uzbek president’s dissident nephew still locked up
Uznews.net – Samarkand’s psychiatric hospital is continuing the forced treatment and confinement of Jamshid Karimov, an independent journalist and President Islam Karimov’s nephew, a hospital source said.

Information about his release spread by sources in Jizak Region few days ago has turned out to be fake.

The source told Uznews.net today that Jamshid Karimov, 41, was still in hospital and there were no signs of his release.

“Jamshid is in hospital. We do not know when he will be discharged,” the source said.

Information on his release from the psychiatric hospital was first circulated last Saturday when it was reported that two activists of the Ezgulik society Dilmurod Muhitdinov from Andijan Region and Mamarajab Nazarov from Jizak Region were released from prison. They both were sentenced to five years in 2006.

The news about the release of Muhitdinov and Nazarov was soon confirmed by their lawyers and relatives, whereas no-one could manage to learn about the future of Jamshid Karimov. Continue reading »

Feb 062008
 

—– Original Message —–

From: HRW ECA

To: HRW ECA

Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 4:32 AM

Subject: Uzbekistan: Activists Released Before EU Meeting

For Immediate Release

Uzbekistan: Activists Released Before EU Meeting

EU Should Sustain Pressure on Tashkent to Release Other Imprisoned Activists

(New York, February 5, 2008) – The Uzbek government’s recent release of five individuals imprisoned for human rights work shows that sustained international pressure on Tashkent is effective, Human Rights Watch said today. The releases occurred in the days preceding an important bilateral EU-Uzbekistan meeting in Tashkent on February 5.

The five activists released or amnestied between February 2-4 are Umida Niazova, Saidjahon Zainabitdinov, Dilmurod Muhitdinov, Ikhtior Khamraev, and Bahodir Mukhtarov. Niazova was serving a suspended prison sentence after her seven-year prison term was commuted in May 2007 (http://hrw.org/ english/docs/ 2007/05/08/ uzbeki15881. htm). Continue reading »

Jan 042008
 

MOSCOW: A prominent Uzbek human rights activist has been released from prison, just a month after he was sentenced to more than six years for fraud, a colleague said Friday.

Karim Bozorboyev, deputy chairman of the Esguliq human rights group, was freed under an amnesty celebrating the 15th anniversary of Uzbekistan’s constitution, Esguliq chairman Isroil Rizaev told The Associated Press. Continue reading »