For more than two decades, Murod Juraev languished behind bars in Uzbekistan and was subjected to torture and ill-treatment so bad that all his teeth fell out. After 21 years in detention — one of the world’s longest imprisoned political activists — Juraev was released in November 2015. [Juraev was a member of the Erk opposition party and a former local mayor in southern Uzbekistan when he was jailed, in 1994.] Juraev had his jail term extended four times to keep him in jail — in 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2012 — after authorities found he had broken prison rules, including “peeling carrots incorrectly”, “failure to lift a heavy object” and “wearing a white shirt.”
Posts Tagged ‘Elena Urlaeva’
Uzbekistan: Murod Juraev free after two decades in jail – what about the others?
December 29, 2015Posted in awards, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, Elena Urlaeva, Erk opposition, HRW, ill treatment, MEA Laureate 2008, Murod Juraev, Mutabar Tadjibayeva, NGOs, political prisoner, prison sentence, release, Shukhrat Rustamov, Steve Swerdlow, Tji Haksoon Justice and Peace award, Uzbekistan
