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Crossroads Asia | Politics | Central Asia
Tazhimuratov’s 16-year sentence was upheld whereas phrases of others have been both lowered or shifted to deal with arrest.
Uzbekistan’s Supreme Court docket has issued its rulings within the appeals of 16 individuals sentenced in January to varied jail phrases for his or her involvement in protests in Karakalpakstan final summer time, in addition to ruling on a request from prosecutors to rethink 4 others initially given home arrest phrases.
On Twitter, Kazakhstan-based Karakalpak activist Aqylbek Muratbai chronicled the rulings, noting that eight individuals initially given between three and eight yr jail sentences noticed these phrases changed with home arrest — they have been launched after the studying of the ruling. Six others had their sentences lowered.
Nevertheless, a lawyer and journalist framed by Uzbek authorities because the mastermind of the protests was not granted any reprieve. Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov’s 16-year sentence stands.
Throughout the enchantment, Tazhimuratov’s lawyer, Sergei Mayorov, mentioned, “This trial goals to instill worry among the many residents of Uzbekistan, to deprive our individuals of freedom of speech. My consumer was not afraid and isn’t afraid to inform the reality, and that’s the reason I imagine this trial is political.”
Tazhimuratov alone maintained his innocence; different defendants expressed contrition and pleaded for mercy from the courtroom.
4 defendants — together with one other journalist, Lolagul Kallykhanova — who have been convicted in January however launched to deal with arrest had their sentences upheld by the Supreme Court docket, denying prosecutors request that they be jailed.
The sentence of the late Polat Shamshetov — six years — was additionally canceled. Shamshetov was sentenced on January 31 however died in police custody every week later.
Shamshetov, previous to his arrest in July 2022, had been the chief of Karakalpakstan’s Inside Ministry’s detective unit. He was the son of Karakalpakstan’s solely president, Dauletbai Shamshetov, who led the autonomous republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 till 1992 when the place was eradicated by Tashkent.
The authorities claimed Shamshetov’s demise was the results of a “pulmonary embolism” and “acute coronary heart failure,” however activists imagine he died because of torture. In December, amid the trial, Tazhimuratov claimed he had been overwhelmed and tortured in pre-trial detention in Nukus.
The unrest in July 2022 that rocked Nukus, Karakalpakstan’s capital, led to the deaths of no less than 21 individuals; activists say the demise toll was a lot increased. Triggered by the discharge of a draft structure that erased Karakalpakstan’s autonomy, the ensuing protests have been the biggest seen within the area in latest reminiscence.
Sixty-one individuals have been placed on trial for costs associated to the July 2022 unrest in two separate trials (22 within the first, 39 within the second), however thus far there was little motion taken towards regulation enforcement arguably accountable for the deaths in the course of the protests. In February Uzbek authorities mentioned three members of regulation enforcement had been detained on unspecified costs. There has not been an replace on whether or not the officers will probably be placed on trial.
In November 2022, Human Rights Watch mentioned that Uzbek safety forces “unjustifiably used deadly power and different extreme responses to disperse primarily peaceable demonstrators on July 1 and a pair of, 2022 in Karakalpakstan…”
Uzbek courts have additionally sentenced, in absentia, two activists — Norway-based Aman Sagidullayev and Kazakhstan-based Neitbay Urazbayev — to prolonged jail phrases. And a handful of Karakalpak activists (all of that are Uzbek residents) have been detained in Kazakhstan, ostensibly dealing with potential deportation again to Uzbekistan to face costs.
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