Uznews, Nukus, 26 Aug 2008 – The Mangit town court in Karakalpakstan’s Amudarya District today started hearings into the case of the head of the Tashkent-based Mazlum human rights organisation, Agzam Turgunov, but it was immediately postponed.
There were two defendants at today’s trial – Agzam Turgunov and resident of Mangit Hamza Salayev. They are charged with extortion under Article 165, Part 3 of the Uzbek Criminal Code and are facing prison terms between 10 and 15 years each.
However, as soon as the trial started the judge decided to postpone it because he explained that the lawyers needed interpreters: the judge decided that Salayev’s ethnic Korean lawyer Rem Yugay did not speak Uzbek, while Agzamov’s lawyer from Tashkent Rustam Tulyaganov did not speak Russian.
The trial was postponed until 4 September – after celebrations of Independence Day on 1 September.
Agzam Turgunov was detained in Karakalpakstan on 11 July 2008. His lawyer and colleagues said he had not extorted anything and that this detention and the trial were political motivated. This is the persecution of human rights activists by the Uzbek authorities which decided to get rid of critics and opponents.
Member of the opposition Erk party Dilorom Ishakova, who came to Karakalpakstan from Tashkent to attend her friend Agzam Turgunov’s trial, said that even least experienced person understood that this case had been trumped up against Turgunov.
The investigation claims Turgunov and Salayev had extorted 500,000 sums from Mangit resident Oybek Hujoboyev and ignores the fact that they did not have any money on them when they were arrested.
Agzam Turgunov went to Karakalpakstan in early July to represent resident of Mangit Muborak Salayeva’s interest in court after she filed a suit against her former husband Oybek Hujoboyev to demand alimonies for their two children.
After Hujoboyev learnt about the lawsuit, he promised to give 2 million sums for buying a flat for his children but when Agzam Turgunov and Muborak Salayeva met Hujoboyev, he gave only 500,000 sums ($380) to which Hamza Salayev reacted angrily and returned the money, saying that this money would not buy any hosing.
Dilorom Ishakova said that during the meeting police officers seized a bag from Turgunov’s hand but found only bones he collected for dogs after his dinner instead of money.
However, the content of the bag did not confuse the officers because they were acting on someone’s orders and launched a criminal case on extortion charges.
There is no hope for just trial in modern Uzbekistan. Ishakova said that the head of the court registry said this morning that “Turgunov will get a long prison term even if BBC journalists have come to defend him in court”. For some reason, the official took Ishakova for a BBC journalist.
As for Turgunov, Ishakova said, he was managing well. “He has lost weight heavily, but his eyes are shining and he has high mood and is ready for defence,” she said. “He asked to send his greetings and gratitude to all those who are sympathising with him.”
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