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Parliamentary question - E-004756/2014Parliamentary question
E-004756/2014

VP/HR — Imprisonment of journalist Salidzhon Abdurakhmanov in Uzbekistan

Question for written answer E-004756-14
to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative)
Rule 117
David Martin (S&D)

Salidzhon Abdurakhmanov, 63, is the chairperson of the registered non-governmental human rights organisation Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Individual (Komitet po Zashchite Prav Linchnosti) in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. Mr Abdurakhmanov was detained in 2008, at which time he was one of the few independent journalists left in the country writing about the situation in Karakalpakstan. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after a trial that fell short of international fair trial standards in contravention of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Uzbekistan is a State Party.

Amnesty International considers Salidzhon Abdurakhmanov to be a prisoner of conscience detained solely for carrying out his human rights activities and exercising his right to freedom of expression.

Can the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy advise of her official reaction to this troubling case, and will any contact or intervention be made vis-à-vis the national authorities?

OJ C 402, 13/11/2014