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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Uzbek rights campaigner released in amnesty |
| 2006-12-26 |
| TASHKENT - Authorities in Uzbekistan have released in an amnesty a 69-year-old human rights activist jailed for handing out critical articles at a market, the man said on Monday. Yodgor Turlibekov was arrested in June after distributing at a local market copies of pamphlets he had written that were critical of the economic situation in the southern province of Kashkadarya. He was charged with blackmailing a local farmer and in October was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail, the Initiative Group of Independent Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan, a local human rights group, said earlier. The upper chamber of the Uzbek parliament, the Senate, approved an amnesty bill in November to release foreigners, women, and people over 60, who were convicted for the first time and whose offenses were not serious. ‘I was released yesterday under the amnesty. Depending on the situation, I’ll think about continuing my activity as a rights campaigner,’ Turlibekov told AFP by telephone. |
| Posted by:Steve White |