(Tashkent) A Muslim blogger critical of the authorities has been sentenced to 7 and a half years in prison in Uzbekistan, the former Soviet republic of Central Asia, for a publication on Facebook, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday.
Posted at 11:28
A court in the capital Tashkent on Wednesday convicted blogger Fazilkhodja Arifkhodjayev of “producing, storing, distributing or displaying materials that threaten public security and order”, lawyer Sergei Maiorov said.
According to him, the materials in question were a Facebook post in March 2021 asking whether it was appropriate for a Muslim to congratulate followers of other religions on non-Muslim holidays.
“It was the only offense for which he was tried. Public expertise claimed that he was disseminating religious fundamentalism,” the lawyer said.
Mr. Arifkhojayev was not even the author of this publication which he just shared on Facebook, assured Mr.and Mayorov, claiming that its author — another user of this social network — has since deleted the original.
Islam is the dominant religion in this country of about 35 million inhabitants, but the power in place, which wants to be secular, has maintained strict control over all forms of religious expression since the end of the USSR, in the excuse to fight against extremism.
In December, the NGO Human Rights Watch said in a statement that it feared that Mr. Arifkhojayev, a blogger “known for his criticism of the restrictive religious policies of the Uzbek government”, could be ill-treated in prison.
Since taking over as head of the Uzbek state in 2016, President Shavkat Mirzioev has introduced reforms lifting the leaden screed instituted by his predecessor, the authoritarian Islam Karimov, who repressed all forms of opposition and also fought against all outward signs of piety.
The Uzbek authorities also released several journalists imprisoned under Karimov.
But the arrest with a lot of searches, then the sentencing last year to six and a half years in prison of the blogger Otabek Sattoriï, found guilty of “extortion” and “defamation” raised fears among NGOs defending human rights a brutal step backwards.