Uzbek Courts Sentence Two Groups of 25 Muslim Believers on "Extremism" Charges

The Uzbek government is continuing to sentence large groups of devout Muslims in brief proceedings behind closed doors in a wave of trials throughout Uzbekistan that follow a string of violent attacks in Andijan and the capital of Tashkent last year. Very little is know about the people who have been tried, mainly young men in their 20s and 30s, but human rights defenders and relatives say they were arrested for holding unsanctioned prayer meetings in their homes and distributing religious literature and tapes. Prosecutors have charged them with creating extremist groups to attempt to overthrow the constitutional order to install a theocracy, yet no evidence of violence has been supplied, and any connection they may have had to past violent incidents has not been estabilshed publicly.

The first group of 25 Uzbek citizens were sentenced by the Tashkent regional criminal court for their alleged membership in a group called Islamic Jihad of Uzbekistan, said by the Uzbek government to be a religious extremist group, the Veritas Youth Human Rights Movement reported in a statement circulated by email June 1. Veritas said it had obtained a copy of the sentence handed down by the court at one of many such trials held behind closed-doors since the attacks last spring and summer These include bombings in Andijan region where one policeman was killed; the murder of a prosecutor and the stabbling of two religious figures in Tashkent last July, as well as shoot-outs between militants and the police in Tashkent last August. All the defendants were detained in January and February 2010 in a wave of arrests throughout the region.

In both cases, the men are charged with "encroachment on the constitutional order;" "dissemination of materials harmful to public safety and order"; "creation, leadership and participation in religious extremist, separatist, fundamentalist or other banned organizations;" and "unlawful organization of public associations or religious organizations."

The Islamic Jihad of Uzbekistan is characterized by the prosecution as a "reactionary religious-political Wahhabi-Salafi movement." The Committee on Religious Affairs of the Uzbek Cabinet of Ministers describes the "Salafi" movement as a religious, socio-political, cultural, and reformist movement aimed at "renewing and reforming" Islam and the Islamic worldview according to fundamentalist concepts from the era of the first three generations of Muslims, including the time of the Prophet Muhammed. The followers were charged with forming groups and distributing literature, tapes, and CDs and calling for an unconstitutional establishment of an Islamic government in Uzbekistan and a worldwide Islamic caliphate. They were also charged with forming ties with representatives of a banned extremist group called Tabligi-Jamaat in Kyrgyzstan.

Veritas says that evidence was not supplied to prove the charges. Suspects were sentenced mainly based on a report from an expert group created under the Committee on Religious Affairs which analyzed religious literature, CDs, audio, and video cassettes said to be confiscated by police from their homes. Veritas says that nearly all the literature and tapes are openly available for sale in Uzbekistan and are not prohibited, although they were also said to possess tapes of preaching by Abduvali Murzaev and Obidhon Nazarov, said to be close to fundamentalists in their views, who are wanted by Uzbek police. Testimony was also given by local mahalla or community leaders and some neighbors who said the defendants had a devout lifestyle. The investigation was conducted hastily; the suspects were detained on March 14; the preliminary investigation and indictment was completed on March 14, and they were sentenced on April 27.

The defendants were said to meet together to pray and study in private homes, and also attended mosques together. None of the men said they were tortured, but most confessed their guilt, in that they confirmed that they had prayed and studied at home or in mosques and believed society should be government by Islamic law and traditions. Even so, they insisted that they had not planned any anticonstitutional actions, and all of them denied membership in the organization Islamic Jihad of Uzbekistan. All of the defendants believe they have been wrongfully imprisoned for their beliefs and had not committed any unlawful actions, says Veritas. They said they advocated a greater role for Islam in society and stricter observation of Muslim traditions, but they wished to achieve this through peaceful means, and stated that violent means would not achieve the desired results.

By the standards of other such trials, the sentences were relatively light for the first group, ranging from 3 years of imprisonment given to an elderly man born in 1937, to sentences up to 6 years of imprisonment. The defendants, most of whom were in their 30s and 40s, married, and with multiple children, were from Tashkent or Kibray district in Tashkent region.

The appeals hearing in a criminal case against a second group of 25 Muslim believers in Jizak region finished June 2, and the sentences remain in force for 16 of the defendants, while 9 others will face a re-trial, the Expert Working Group of Uzbekistan reported in a statement emailed June 5. Bakhtiyor Khamroyev, head of the Jizak region section of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, and an Expert Group member, and Sukhrobjon Ismoilov, coordinator of the Expert Working Group, said the court reviewed the defendants' appeal and a protest by the regional prosecutor's office and left unchanged the sentences of varying lengths handed down in April to 16 believers. Activists hope the 9 others will face a new trial that will exonerate the arrested men and not subject them to even more harsh punishments.

The trial of the second group of 25, most of whom are from the Pakhtakor district and are ages 25-35, began on February 5, 2020 in the Jizak region criminal code with Judge Dilshod Orolov presiding. The defendants knew each other from the neighborhood or from work. The men had to share 6 state-appointed attorneys to defend them.

In March, the Expert Group was informed that 12 of the men arrested made statements that they had been tortured and suffered inhumane treatment in pre-trial detention. In an unusual admission of a common practice that can go unacknowledged in Uzbekistan, the court ordered a medical examination for four of the men, but then later said the statements submitted by the Jizak bureau of forensic medicine found no evidence of torture. The prosecutor then asked for 14 years of imprisonment for these four men, saying they were the heads of a banned religious group, and requested 6-10 years for the others. All of the men denied any guilt and said they had only held religious discussions in their private homes, and believed their praying was not a crime.

On April 1, about 20 relatives of the defendants held a protest in front of the Jizak regional prosecutor's office. Local officials agreed to hear their oral statements and receive written statements, and said they would try to reduce the punishment of those arrested. The relatives demonstrated twice more on April 5 and 6. The court sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment three of the heads of what they characterized as a "religious extremist group" and sentenced the remaining defendants from 2-8 years of prison or labor colony. group" and sentenced them to 10 years of prison.

In their report on the first trial, Veritas said that while the religious believers' activities appeared to be non-violent, the activists found some of their practices had troubling implications for a secular society. The believers had refused to send their children, especially girls, to public schools or other public places, saying they would be corrupted there. They also ordered their wives and other female relatives to wear the hijab. Yet if the Uzbek government expects to enforce a balance between religious freedom and other human rights, it cannot expect people to absorb the lesson when they are detained and often tortured, then summarily tried for grave crimes evidently for only meeting in their homes to pray and discuss their beliefs.