Activists call for release of journalist

A campaign calling for the release of Uzbek journalist Sabirjon Yakubov is gaining momentum following what activists refer to as trumped up charges against him earlier this month. "We are calling for his immediate release and due process of law," Pascale Bonnamour, head of the Europe desk for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) told IRIN from Paris on Wednesday, noting their organisation's concern for the young journalist's safety while in jail. "We are concerned about his welfare," she explained, citing an institutionalised usage of torture in the country. Faced with up to 20 years in prison, the Uzbek reporter for the independent weekly newspaper Hurriyet (Liberty), has been charged under Article 159 of the criminal code: "undermining the constitutional order". The 22-year-old was initially detained in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on 11 April on charges of religious extremism and formally charged three days later, local and international press reports say. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the formal charge is based on Yakubov's alleged religious activities. The government did not describe those purported actions in detail, but local reports cited Yakubov's alleged participation in an illegal organisation, the New York-based group said. Yakubov's colleagues, however, believe the charges against him were politicised and he was being punished for writing about Islam and advocating democratic reforms, a CPJ statement read on Tuesday, citing press reports, a sentiment shared by activists on the ground. "His only fault [with the authorities] was being a Muslim," Tolib Yakubov, head of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), a local rights group, told IRIN from Tashkent. "He is a religious man and therefore he was arrested," he explained, describing the case as a fabrication. Tashkent had imprisoned tens of thousands of young people for their religious beliefs, the local rights activist with the same surname as the jailed journalist, but not his relative, claimed. "There has never ever been press freedom in Uzbekistan. Neither before nor after the collapse of the Soviet Union [in 1991] has there been media freedom and there won't be any with the ruling regime remaining in power," Yakubov charged. "Uzbek President Islam Karimov tolerates no opposition," Bonnamour from RSF echoed, citing his crackdown on all groups promoting religious teachings. "He [Yakubov] is accused of being a fundamentalist, but there is no proof," she countered. Bonnamour believed Yakubov's arrest stemmed from an article he wrote on 16 March about the implication of senior Ukrainian officials in the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze and its contributing role in Ukraine's "orange revolution" at the end of 2004. The article also accused the United States of reining in its human rights monitoring in the country following Tashkent's support for America's war against terrorism following the events of 11 September 2001. Moreover, political events in Georgia and more recently in Kyrgyzstan, where the authoritarian government of President Askar Akayev was successfully overthrown, were alarming the authorities in Uzbekistan, the RSF official maintained. "The fact that Yakubov is in prison serves as a warning to other journalists to monitor what they say," she said. "I'm convinced there is a connection." Meanwhile, Washington on Tuesday urged Tashkent to provide "fair and humane treatment" to Yakubov. "Our embassy is in contact with the Uzbek authorities and has urged observance of due process and fair and humane treatment for Mr Yakubov," the AFP news agency reported US State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, as saying. According to RSF, Article 159 of the Uzbek criminal code is often used as a means to silence dissent in Central Asia's most populous state. Yakubov's arrest had recalled that of Hurriyet contributor Gayrat Mekhliboyev, who was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to seven years in prison for "violation of the constitutional order" and "participation in an extremist religious organisation", the watchdog group said.