DISSIDENT'S SON ARRESTED AGAIN IN BUKHARA;

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 002109

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/11/2017
TAGS: PHUM PGOV UZ
SUBJECT: DISSIDENT'S SON ARRESTED AGAIN IN BUKHARA;
FAMILY'S HOUSE REPORTEDLY RAIDED

REF: A. TASHKENT 1561


B. TASHKENT 2083

Classified By: POLOFF R. FITZMAURICE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D).


1. (C) On December 4, police in the Karakul district of
Bukhara province reportedly arrested Mashrab Jumaev, son of
dissident poet and Birlik opposition party member Yusup
Jumaev, and charged him with stabbing an individual.
Mashrab's brother, Alisher, told poloff on December 10 that
the charges against his brother were fabricated and based on
coerced testimony. On December 11, Alisher told poloff via
email that his family's house was raided the night of
December 10 by "roughly 100" Ministry of Interior (MVD) and
National Security Service (NSS) officers, who allegedly shot
his family's dogs, confiscated their property, and possibly
arrested his other family members. Mashrab was earlier
convicted on August 14 of stealing a neighbor's sheep and
given a fine after being tortured for more than two weeks in
pre-trial detention (ref A). Alisher believed that the
authorities targeted Mashrab and the rest of his family in
retaliation against their father, an outspoken critic of
President Karimov. We are unable to independently confirm
any of the information provided by Alisher, and some of the
details appear exaggerated, but we will continue to follow
this case closely. Given the seriousness of the charges
involved, we believe that the story about the raid may be
picked up soon by independent news websites or even
international news outlets. End summary.

MASHRAB REPORTEDLY ARRESTED SECOND TIME IN ONE YEAR
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2. (C) On December 10, poloff met at the Embassy with
Alisher Jumaev, who explained in detail the rather convoluted
story of how his brother Mashrab Jumaev was arrested by local
authorities for the second time in one year. According to
Alisher, Mashrab was originally arrested without charge on
December 4 in retaliation for a request his family made to
local authorities on December 1 to hold an anti-Karimov
picket. Shortly after his arrest, Mashrab was allegedly
charged with a crime that allegedly occurred the same day.
On December 4, two men in Karakul district tried to break
into the home of a woman named Nargiza to rape her daughter.
Nargiza reportedly wrestled a knife away from one of the
attackers, stabbing him in the hand in the process. However,
when Nargiza tried to report the incident to the police, she
was allegedly held in custody for two days and pressured into
making a written and video confession that Mashrab had
stabbed the man. After Nargiza was released by the police on
December 6, she reportedly wrote a letter to the Karakul's
prosecutor, a copy of which was provided to Yusuf Jumaev,
explaining what had occurred and denying that Mashrab was
involved in the attack. In retaliation for writing the
letter, Alisher said that Nargiza was arrested on unknown
charges and remains in detention.


3. (C) Alisher was allegedly told by a local doctor that
police also approached Farhat, the man who was stabbed, at a
local hospital where he was being treated and also pressured
him into stating that Mashrab had attacked him. Alisher did
not know Farhat's last name and said that the second
individual who allegedly attacked Nargiza remains
unidentified. Alisher added that Mashrab had never met
Nargiza or Farhat before, nor was he near Nargiza's house at
the time of the attack. Alisher did not know whether Mashrab
was already in police custody at the time of the attack.


4. (C) Alisher also told poloff that Mashrab was transferred
on December 8 from Karakul police custody to Bukhara's
Ok-Bozor prison, where he was held in pre-trial detention and

reportedly tortured this past summer. Mashrab was also
reportedly arrested by Otabek Badalov, one of the policemen
who allegedly beat him this summer. Alisher did not know
when his brother's trial might start, but suspected that he
might be held in pre-trial detention for several weeks or
months before any trial would begin.

JUMAEV FAMILY REPORTEDLY LEADS VOCAL ANTI-KARIMOV PICKETS
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Between December 6 and 9, while Mashrab was being
held in detention, the Jumaev family went ahead with plans to
hold anti-Karimov pickets in several locations in Karakul
district, including in front of the prosecutor's office and
the local administration building and at a bazaar. Alisher
shared with poloffs pictures of the protests, which show him
and his father holding posters accusing President Karimov of
violating Uzbekistan's constitution by seeking a third term
in office. One of the photos showed the two holding posters
in front of the Karakul district administration building, the
sign of which is clearly visible in the photo. Alisher also
said his family had organized a "mobile picket" by attaching
anti-Karimov posters to their car and driving around three
different districts in their area.

ALLEGED RAID AGAINST JUMAEV FAMILY HOME
--------------


6. (C) On December 12, poloff received an email from Alisher
stating that his family's home in Karakul district was
allegedly raided the night before by "roughly 100" MVD and
NSS officers. Alisher wrote that he learned from
unidentified sources that the officers shot his family's dogs
and confiscated their property, including Alisher's computer.
According to Alisher, the MVD has spread rumors that his
family has fled the district and pictures of them have
appeared on wanted posters at police stations and post
offices. He was afraid that his family was in fact arrested
or might have even been killed during the raid. Alisher
wrote that he had gone into hiding in an undisclosed location
(Comment: Alisher told poloff at their meeting the day before
that he was taking an overnight bus back to Bukhara from
Tashkent, so he would not have been at home when the raid
allegedly occurred. End comment.) Poloff has been so far
unable to reach Alisher by phone today to confirm the
information.

MASHRAB'S MOTHER ALSO REPORTEDLY IN HIDING
--------------


7. (C) During their meeting on December 10, Alisher also
told poloff that his mother earlier went into hiding in
November after she received a summons from the local NSS
office. Alisher provided poloff with a copy of the summons,
which did not indicate why she was being summoned. Alisher
believed that his mother was to be questioned regarding her
participation in a picket this summer calling for Mashrab's
release while he was being held in pre-trial detention for
allegedly stealing a neighbor's sheep. He did not disclose
where his mother was allegedly hiding.

COMMENT
--------------


8. (C) Comment: We have so far been unable to independently
verify any of the information Alisher has provided us, which,
at first glance, appears outlandish, even for Uzbekistan.
Poloff suspects that Alisher may be exaggerating certain
details to draw greater attention to his brother's arrest.
Still, we will continue to follow the case closely given the
seriousness of the charges alleged. The fact that this is

Mashrab's second arrest in a year suggests that local
officials or police may very well have something against his
family. The Uzbek Government is also certainly not above
attacking the children of its opponents, witnessed by the
arrest last year and continued mistreatment in prison of
Ikhtiyor Hamroev, the son of prominent human rights activist
Bakhtiyor Hamroev (ref B). Indeed, the number of reports
suggesting that the government is clamping down on activists
in the run-up to the December 23 presidential election
appears to be going up. The Embassy will draw this to the
GOU's attention bilaterally and with the OSCE's
recently-arrived election monitoring mission, urging senior
officials to halt this negative trend.
NORLAND