Sergei Naumov, an independent journalist, has been detained and held incommunicado in Uzbekistan. Human rights defenders and colleagues fear that the authorities are trying to silence him and that he is at risk of being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. He was detained by local police officers at his home in the city of Urgench, in Khorezm region in north-western Uzbekistan, on 21 September 2013.