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Ex-Candidates for President Nominated by the Human Rights Alliance Fled Uzbekistan |
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Thursday, 24 April 2008
Akhtam Shaimardanov, 55, and Abdullo Tojiboi-ugli, 58, activists of the Human Rights Alliance who had applied for registration as candidates for president last year, fled the country for fear of harassment, organization leader Yelena Urlayeva told Die Deutsche Welle.
Shaimardanov and Tojiboi-ugli said afterwards that the requirements one had to meet to be registered as a candidate for president were a sheer impossibility without the so called administrative resource at one's disposal. Complaining against the Central Electoral Commission, Human Rights Alliance activists had knocked at every door from the Supreme Court to the Prosecutor General's Office - with nothing to show for it.
The Human Rights Alliance arranged regular protest actions in Tashkent beginning in December 2007 and staged pickets in front of the Prosecutor General's Office to show disagreement with the manner of the presidential campaign, outcome of the election, and treatment of the opposition in Uzbekistan.
Faithful participants in the protests, Shaimardanov and Tojiboi-ugli demanded release of human rights activists and dissenters from jails and a revision of the outcome of the election. Human rights activists are convinced that Islam Karimov's continued presidency constitutes a violation of the Constitution.
One of the protests took place in front of the Prosecutor General's Office on March 20. Demanding release of political prisoners from jails, the protesters were roughed up by the police, detained, and released afterwards. According to Urlayeva, Shaimardanov and Tojiboi-ugli were scheduled to be tried for their social activeness soon. She said the authorities did not want any protests in Tashkent and therefore ordered the police to do whatever it took to put an end to pickets in front of the Prosecutor General's Office. The Human Rights Alliance leader said pressure had been steadily mounting and Shaimardanov and Tojiboi-ugli finally decided to escape from the country altogether.
23.04.2008
Ferghana.ru |
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Central Asia
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