Opposition activist released on appeal

A leader of a prominent Uzbek opposition group, sentenced earlier to 10 years in prison for economic crimes, has been released on appeal. Nodira Hidoyatova, coordinator for the Sunshine Uzbekistan coalition, was released on Tuesday after the appeals court took into account that she had already paid around US $100,000 in bail and had two children, head of the Initiative Group of Independent Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan, Surat Ikramov, confirmed in the capital, Tashkent. “The appeals court decided that the charges against her were fully proved, but we believe that the case against her and others was politically motivated,” Ikramov further maintained, noting the appeal decision had been postponed seven times. The 38-year-old activist’s sentence was commuted to a seven-year suspended jail term, the first three years of which were to be on probation. Under Uzbek law the suspended sentence will be lifted provided Hidoyatova does not violate her probation period. Hidoyatova was sentenced to 10 years in prison for economic crimes following her group’s call for the government to resign after last year’s violent suppression of anti-government protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan – demonstrations in which as many as 1,000 people may have been killed, according to human rights activists. The mother-of-two was found guilty on seven charges, including tax evasion, money laundering and membership of an organised criminal group, all of which Hidoyatova has vehemently denied. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) maintains that the charges against Hidoyatova, as well as coalition leader Sanjar Umarov, appear to be “politically motivated”. Umarov, 49, was also sentenced in March after being found guilty of "heading an organised criminal group and also creating several offshore companies to commit economic crimes." He too saw his sentence reduced to more than seven years in April. Sunshine Uzbekistan rose to prominence with its vocal criticism of the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov after the Andijan crackdown of 13 May 2005, in which it called on Washington to press for economic reform. Tashkent maintains that only 187 people died in the violence and has refused any international inquiry into the incident. SM/SC/JL