Uznews, Tashkent, 29 Jan 2010 – Investigator Nodir Ahmadjanov has rejected photographer and documentary filmmaker Umida Ahmedova and her lawyer’s motion to question experts who concluded three weeks ago that her photo album “Women and Men: from Dawn to Dusk” and documentary “Burden of Virginity” defamed the Uzbek people.
Umida and her lawyer wanted to know which national ideology her album had undermined and which information in it aimed against the existing constitutional system in Uzbekistan.
Another point was whether charges against her took into account Uzbekistan’s obligation as a member of UNESCO to observe the organisation’s 2005 convention on the artistic right to freely choose forms of cultural and artistic expression.
Ahmedova and her lawyer failed to receive answers to these questions. Few days ago her lawyer filed another motion raising the issue of numerous violations of the procedure during the investigation. Her husband Oleg Karpov, who co-produced the documentary, suggested that this motion would also be turned down.
“I have an impression that the investigator has a template for rejecting motions, in which he changes only the date and the subject of motion, leaving everything else without changes,” Karpov thinks.
Umida Ahmedova is now awaiting her trial which should take place two or three weeks after she completed studying the material of the criminal case yesterday, while the investigation into her case was completed last week.
Ahmedova faces charges of libel caused by selfish reasons under Article 139 of the Uzbek Criminal Code and of making insults in a media carrier under Article 140 of the Criminal Code. The first charge is punishable by up to three years in prison, while the second charge envisages a fine worth 200 to 400 minimum wages and corrective labour during a year or two years.
She maintains that she did not have any selfish reasons while producing the documentary and the album and that she is innocent.
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