Date of Expected Release: 2018

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A human rights activist as well as a freelance journalist, Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov was one of the founders of the Uzbek news website Uznews.net and a correspondent for several other independent websites. Abdurakhmanov was arrested on 7 June 2008 in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region in western Uzbekistan, after traffic police searched his car and found illicit drugs.

Trial and Sentencing

Initially accused of drug “use”, the charges were changed to possession with intent to distribute after medical tests showed that he was drug free. Abdurakhmanov has always denied the charges and is convinced the drugs were planted by police.

During the trial, he repeatedly requested that the video police recorded of his arrest and the search of his car be shown, but the court refused. A court in Nukus, in the west of the country, sentenced him to 10 years in prison on October 10th 2008.Everything about his arrest and trial suggests authorities have used trumped up charges to silence another independent journalist and human rights activist. Many other journalists, writers and human rights activists are currently detained in Uzbekistan, including the poet Jusuf Djuma and nine journalists – Dilmurod Sayid, Bakhrom Ibragimov, Davron Kabilov, Ravshanbek Vafoev, Abdulaziz Dadakhonov, Botyrbek Eshkuziev, Djamchid Karimov, Jusuf Ruzimuradov et Mohammed Bekjanov.

Journalist Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

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