Around 50 women have demonstrated in the city of Namangan in
the Uzbek section of the Fergana Valley to demand the release of their
imprisoned husbands whose only "crime", in their view, is to be
"faithful Muslims". Local resident Misor Ubaidulaeva told Forum 18
News Service on 20 June that she and other wives of "prisoners of
conscience" staged the demonstration on 17 June outside the regional
administration. She said her husband, Shukhrat Askhujaev, was sentenced in 1999
under article 159 of the criminal code, which punishes undermining the
constitutional basis of the republic of Uzbekistan. "But my husband was
not a terrorist, he simply said prayers five times a day and attended the
mosque regularly," Ubaidulaeva told Forum 18. "The husbands of the
other women who took part in the demonstration with me also committed no crime,
but simply prayed to God."
Ubaidulaeva also complained about conditions in the prison in the southern town
of Karshi where her husband is being held. She maintains that Muslim inmates
are not allowed to perform their prayers. Ubaidulaeva also declared that her
husband is regularly beaten and that he has virtually lost his hearing because
of the beatings.
The press officer for Namangan regional administration, Azbek Abdulaev,
confirmed to Forum 18 on 20 June that the demonstration had taken place, but
claimed that it had consisted only of "around 15 people". He insisted
that the police had not dispersed the demonstrators.
However, the head of the Namangan regional branch of the Independent Society of
Human Rights of Uzbekistan, Gulyamzhon Khalmatov, told Forum 18 on 21 June that
the local police are demanding a written pledge from the women that they will
not take part in any more demonstrations.
When Forum 18 met the local police officer for Namangan's Istikol district
where Ubaidulaeva lives, Lieutenant Omajon Juraev, on 21 June, he did not deny
that he had made Ubaidulaeva and her mother-in-law Habiba Sadykova write
pledges. In the pledges, which he showed to Forum 18, the women undertake
"not to take part in unlawful meetings and to apply on all issues to the
authorities of the district".