Gay Human Rights Defender Arrested in Uzbekistan
365Gay.com,
May 29, 2003
By Doug Windsor, New York Bureau
NEW YORK CITY—Uzbekistan
authorities have arrested human rights defender Ruslan Sharipov on charges of
homosexuality in what Human Rights Watch calls purely politically motivated
reasons. Human Rights Watch called on the Uzbek government to immediately
release the Sharipov and two co-workers pending further investigation.
On May 26, police in the Uzbek capital arrested Sharipov,
a journalist known for his critical articles on police corruption and human
rights abuses. Police also arrested Sharipov’s colleagues Oleg Sarapulov and
Azamat Mamankulov.
On Wednesday, police from the Anti-Terrorism Department
told Human Rights Watch that Sharipov is being charged with having committed
homosexual acts (article 120 of the Uzbekistan criminal code). The police said
they are also looking into allegations Sharipov had sex with two male minors
for money. No charges have been filed against Sarapulov or Mamankulov.
“Sharipov’s longstanding history of criticizing
[Uzbek] government policy, combined with past harassment against him and his
colleagues, raise strong suspicions that this is a politically motivated
case,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s
Europe and Central Asia division. “That the authorities would charge him
with committing homosexual acts, violating his fundamental rights to
non-discrimination and privacy, makes it doubly egregious.”
For more than twenty-four hours following Sharipov’s
arrest, police from the Mirzo-Ulugbekski Police Department denied to Human
Rights Watch and others from the international community that Sharipov and his
colleagues were in their custody. Only in the late morning on May 27 did the
police admit that the three were in custody. That evening, police denied
access to a lawyer who requested to see Sharipov. The next day, police allowed
Sharipov a meeting with a lawyer and Human Rights Watch, but only in the
presence of police officers.
Sharipov told Human Rights Watch that police hit him
several times, threatened to rape him with a bottle, and put a gas mask on
him. He said they also displayed copies of his articles on a table in front of
him and shouted at him for long periods.
Sharipov said that he has never hidden his sexual
orientation. He told Human Rights Watch that he believes the case is being
fabricated against him in retribution for articles he wrote exposing police
corruption.
“Police have already violated Sharipov’s rights,”
said Andersen. “We will be following this case very closely.”
Human Rights Watch has documented prior harassment of
Sharipov, Sarapulov and Mamankulov. On October 21, 2002, National Security
Service officers forcefully escorted Mamankulov out of an Internet café, hit
him several times in the stomach and head, and warned him to stop working with
Sharipov.
On February 22, police detained Sarapulov and questioned
him about Internet articles in his possession that were critical of the Uzbek
government. He was released after two days. He told Human Rights Watch that
the police planted on him leaflets belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic
group banned in Uzbekistan.
In March 2002, Human Rights Watch wrote to President
Karimov, expressing alarm at three attacks on Sharipov in January and February
2002, including being dragged into a car by police officers and questioned
about his journalistic activities, and being beaten twice by unidentified
attackers who took his mobile telephone, journalist accreditation card,
passport and money.
Since 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee,
which monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), has called on countries that are party to the
convention to repeal sodomy laws, or laws that punish adult, consensual
homosexual acts. The Committee held that such laws violate protections against
discrimination in the ICCPR, as well as article 17, which protects the right
to privacy. Specifically, the Committee held that “sexual orientation” was
a status protected under the ICCPR from discrimination. Uzbekistan ratified
the ICCPR in 1996.
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