Rights groups react to appeal loss of activist

Rights activists have expressed concern over an Uzbek court decision last week to uphold an earlier conviction of Ruslan Sharipov, a human rights activist, incarcerated on charges of homosexuality. "He should have been immediately released, because he is innocent and the whole process was fabricated," Tolib Yakubov, the head of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan [HRSU], a local rights group, told IRIN from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Sharipov, a journalist and human rights defender, who had written extensively about government corruption and improprieties, was arrested on 29 May on charges of homosexuality, and sex with a minor. The 25-year-old was arrested under Article 120 of the Uzbek Criminal Code, which punishes “besakalbazlyk” – defined as “consensual satisfaction of the sexual needs of one man with another man” – with up to three years in prison. However, at a closed hearing on Thursday, Sharipov's original sentence of five and a half years was reduced to four, after additional charges under Article 127 - involving minors in "anti-social behaviour" - were dropped. But local activists interviewed by IRIN in Central Asia's most populous state felt that the charges were really just a pretext to silence someone deemed too critical of the regime. "If he [Sharipov] wasn't writing these [critical] articles about law enforcement bodies, he wouldn't have been there [in prison]," Vasilia Inoyatova, the head of the E'zgulik Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, told IRIN from Tashkent. "Those articles he [Sharipov] has been charged with were inactive [in practice], but he broke the law," she said, noting, however, that lots of people in the country could be imprisoned under similar charges. She conceded, however: "But, Uzbekistan is Uzbekistan and one has to reckon its mentality," she explained, noting that local mentality was not welcoming to people with non-traditional sexual orientation. Yakubov described Article 120, with which Sharipov had been charged, as a remnant of the former Soviet regime. "When the authorities learnt about it [Sharipov's being gay] they considered that they could fabricate a suit against him on that basis," Yakubov maintained. But criticism of the court's decision was not just reserved to local rights groups. Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has been closely monitoring the case, believes it could be related to Sharipov's work as a rights activist. "It's disappointing, although it was expected that he would remain in custody. It is disappointing that he was not freed," Matilda Bogner, HRW office head in Tashkent told IRIN. Thursday's decision comes less than a month after masked men in camouflaged uniforms kidnapped and severely beat Sharipov's public defender, Surat Ikramov. According to the watchdog group, the Uzbek Ministry of Affairs had promised an investigation into this attack, but to date had issued no findings. Ikramov had earlier requested an adjournment because Sharipov was feeling ill as a result of an injury over his eye which HRW described as suspicious, reinforcing the group's concern that the activist might be tortured during his incarceration. Bogner has called for the young activist to be released and an independent inquiry to be made into the allegations made against him. She added, that Article 120 of the Uzbek legal system, criminalising homosexuality should be repealed, describing it as a carry over from the Stalinist era. All other countries of the former Soviet Union have since dropped the statute except Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. "All but three have repealed this law," Bogner said.