Renewed efforts to improve the country’s image saw the President prioritize a reform agenda. However, freedoms of association, expression and peaceful assembly remained tightly regulated. Human rights defenders continued to face targeted surveillance. Progress in the eradication of forced labour in...

Uzbekistani blogger and human rights defender Nafosat Olloshkurova was released from a psychiatric institution on 28 December. She was violently detained by police on 23 September 2019 while monitoring and reporting about a peaceful protest. On 26 September she was placed in a psychiatric...

On 28 November a court decided to extend the detention of Uzbekistani blogger and human rights defender Nafosat Olloshkurova in a psychiatric hospital. Nafosat Olloshkurova was detained and beaten by police on 23 September while monitoring and reporting about a peaceful protest. She was placed in...

Former Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan, Rashitjon Kadirov, and 12 others stood trial from January to June 2019. There have been credible reports that Rashitjon Kadirov was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment while in detention in order to coerce him to give evidence against himself and...

Uzbekistani blogger and human rights defender Nafosat Olloshkurova was violently detained on 23 September while monitoring and filming police handling of a peaceful protest. She was sentenced to 10 days in administrative detention and on 26 September she was placed in psychiatric detention. There...

Former Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan Rashitjon Kadirov and 12 co-defendants are standing trial in closed-door criminal proceedings. Credible reports allege that since his detention on 21 February 2018 Rashitjon Kadirov has been subjected to physical abuse, mock executions, sleep deprivation and...

On 7 May, a court issued Uzbekistani journalist Bobomurod Abdullayev with a non-custodial sentence. He was able to walk out of the court room to be reunited with his family, friends and supporters.

The trial of journalist, Bobomurod Abdullayev began on 7 March. During the hearing, he removed his shirt to show bruises on his body that he alleges were sustained under torture. On 15 March, the judge announced that the forensic medical examination he had ordered into the journalist’s torture...

On 15 February, Ali Feruz was released and arrived in Germany a few hours later. The release came after the Supreme Court’s decision on 25 January to uphold the activist’s appeal and overturn the 2017 decision to deport him to Uzbekistan. Ali Feruz had been detained since August 2017 for supposedly...

On 8 February, human rights activists reported that two SNB officers leading the investigation on the case against detained journalist Bobomurod Abdullayev had been suspended and that the General Prosecutor’s Office had initiated investigations into allegations of torture and fabrication of a...

On 10 January, the family of Uzbekistani independent journalist Bobomurod Abdullayev, held since 27 September 2017 in an Uzbekistani National Security Service (SNB) detention centre, was allowed to see him for the first time in three months. While the family saw no visible signs of torture,...

The Russian authorities continue to block activist and journalist Ali Feruz’s release from detention. On 21 November the Basmannyi District court in Moscow issued Ali Feruz with a 5,000 rouble (USD$ 85) fine for working illegally and upheld the decision to deport the activist to Uzbekistan, where...

Journalist and poet Narzullo Akhunzhonov was detained by Ukrainian border guards on 20 September, following an Interpol Red Notice requested by Uzbekistan. He remains remanded in custody, pending a formal extradition request from the Uzbekistani authorities. If forcibly returned to Uzbekistan, he...