As many as 10,000 people languish in Uzbek prisons for their faith. Once there, they are subjected to another injustice, a religious-freedom watchdog reported this week: They are often denied access to clergy and religious literature.
Oslo-based Forum 18 has collected new evidence that Uzbekistan's brutal penal system prevents prisoners of conscience, and those locked up on dubious extremism charges, from worshipping in prison.
Relatives of Muslim prisoners of conscience told Forum 18 that Muslims "cannot openly pray, or read any Muslim literature – even the Koran."
Forum 18 says that prisoners, both Muslims and Christians, are regularly denied visits by clergy. Even the state-controlled Spiritual Board of Muslims and the state-friendly Russian Orthodox Church have limited access to prisons, while clergy from other denominations have virtually no access, the watchdog said.
An official from one recognized religious group, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of state reprisals, told Forum 18 that authorities did not allow his clergy to visit or conduct religious ceremonies in prisons. Though the Board of Muslims claimed to Freedom 18 that it has no problem accessing prisoners, it declined to specify when it had last visited any prisoners.
According to recent estimates by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Islam Karimov’s government has imprisoned "as many as 10,000 individuals" for their non-violent Islamic religious affiliations.
Last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had stopped visiting Uzbek prisons because official obstructions meant its visits had no "meaningful impact on detention conditions." “Dialogue with the detaining authorities must be constructive. And that's not the case in Uzbekistan,” said director-general Yves Daccord.
Forum 18 regularly reports on how police raid the homes of believers – often Protestants and Muslims who practice outside the purview of the Spiritual Board – on flimsy pretexts such as illegally distributing religious material.
The independent Uznews.net website reported in April that police in Tashkent had seized Bibles and other religious literature from Protestants and fined them approximately $3,000 for keeping Bibles at home.
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