FREEDOM HOUSE APPEAL DENIED

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000325 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM UZ SUBJECT: FREEDOM HOUSE APPEAL DENIED REF: A) Tashkent 121, B) Tashkent 55 Classified by Amb. Jon R. Purnell for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) On February 7, Freedom House lost its appeal of an Uzbek court order issued January 11 suspending its operations for six months (Ref A). After deliberating for approximately seven minutes, the appeals court also upheld the decisions to forward allegations that Freedom House illegally operated an unlicensed Internet connection to the prosecutorQs office for criminal investigation. Freedom House may appeal this latest decision to the Chief Judge of the Tashkent Court and then to the Civil Collegium of the Supreme Court. However, Freedom House activities in Uzbekistan are now suspended, as further appeals will not stay the judgment. ¶2. (C) Comment: So far, this case has more or less followed the pattern established by the Internews and IREX cases. If the trend continues, we can expect prosecutors to begin a criminal investigation against Freedom House staff in the near future. It also is possible that the GOU might decide to speed the process up by using the new criminal and administrative code amendments (Ref B) to allege that Freedom House should be closed permanently based on repeated violations of the law. Either way, Freedom House is well on its way to eventual liquidation. PURNELL