Uzbekistan: Mutabar Tadjibaeva released from prison

Uzbek human rights defender Mutabar Tadjibaeva was released from the Tashkent Women’s Prison where she had been frequently detained in solitary confinement in the psychiatric wing of the prison. Mutabar Tadjibaeva was arrested while on her way to attend the Front Line Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders and subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison.

Further Information

Posted 04/05/2008 Tadjibaeva was paroled on June 2, 2008, after serving two years and eight months of her eight-year prison sentence. Although released, Tadjibaeva was not amnestied and will continue to serve a three-year suspended sentence. Tadjibaeva told Human Rights Watch immediately after her release on June 2 that she believes she was paroled because of her medical condition. She was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and underwent surgery on March 18, 2008, at the Tashkent Oncological Hospital. She described her condition as very weak and stated that she is suffering from anemia.

Tadjibaeva, 46 years old, has been a fearless critic of the Uzbek government and openly spoke out against the massacre of mainly unarmed civilians by government forces in Andijan in May 2005. She is also the head of the Burning Hearts Club, an unregistered nongovernmental organization (NGO) in the eastern Uzbek city of Margilan, and has long helped ordinary people seek justice.