humanrightswatch:Fears for Uzbekistan Political Prisoners as Rights Group Gets Rare Access“Whe
humanrightswatch:Fears for Uzbekistan Political Prisoners as Rights Group Gets Rare Access“When my husband went into prison I was 38-years-old. I’m now 58,” says Holbika Juraeva. Through tears, she says she fears he will never be released alive.Juraeva’s husband, Murod Juraev, was an opposition MP in Uzbekistan in the early 1990s. He has been in prison since 1994 for expressing opposition to the policies of the man who remains president today, Islam Karimov.Juraev was due to be released in 2004 but authorities have extended his sentence four times for alleged violations such as “incorrectly peeling carrots” in the prison kitchen.Juraeva said her husband’s case, which the UN and many governments have raised with Tashkent, was entering a critical phase as his next release date of December 2015 approaches. “If his sentence is extended again I fear I’ll be picking up his body from prison,” she said, adding that her husband, who is 62, is seriously ill, having been tortured in prison on several occasions.“When I see him in prison I’m really scared – he looks like a skeleton,” she added.Read more. Photo: Individuals currently imprisoned on politically motivated charges in Uzbekistan. © 2014 Human Rights Watch -- source link