FORMER OPPOSITIONIST SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS'

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000609

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2018
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL UZ
SUBJECT: FORMER OPPOSITIONIST SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS'
IMPRISONMENT

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


1. (C) Summary: The grandson of a prominent oppositionist was
recently sentenced to four years' imprisonment for assaulting
two individuals with a knife, but we do not believe that he
was targeted because of his previous involvement in
opposition politics. On May 23, the independent Harakat.net
website reported that Anvar Karimov - the grandson of Olim
Karimov, one of the founders of the Birlik and Free Farmers
opposition political parties - was sentenced to four years'
imprisonment. In 2007, Karimov came back to Uzbekistan from
Sweden, where he worked for Erk opposition party leader
Muhammad Solih, after the Uzbek government allegedly offered
to let him return to Uzbekistan if he abandoned his political
activities. Karimov's wife explained that her husband was
arrested after unknown individuals beat him and several other
members of her family in December 2007. She believes that
her husband was targeted because of his opposition
activities. However, the Human Rights Director in Tashkent
reported to poloff having a conversation with Karimov's
lawyer, in which the lawyer expressed her belief that Karimov
was in fact guilty of attacking the two individuals, one of
whom was romantically involved with his wife in the past. We
also have further reason to doubt the credibility of
Karimov's wife. End summary.

GRANDSON OF PROMINENT OPPOSITIONIST GIVEN FOUR YEAR SENTENCE
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2. (U) The independent Harakat.net website reported on May
23 that Anvar Karimov - the grandson of Olim Karimov, one of
the founders of the Birlik and Free Farmers opposition
political parties - was recently sentenced to four years'
imprisonment for "encroaching on Uzbekistan" (Note: The
article, which is in Uzbek, is poorly written and according
to Embassy FSN, it is difficult to interpret what the author
meant by "encroaching on Uzbekistan." End note.) Quoting
Karimov's spouse, Dilobar Khudoyberganova, the article states
that Karimov was arrested on December 31, 2007, after he
returned to Uzbekistan from Sweden, where he worked for the
Erk opposition political party.

WIFE ARGUES THAT KARIMOV IS VICTIM OF PROVOCATION
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3. (C) Poloff has followed the Karimov case since January
and has met on several occasions with Khudoyberganova.
According to Khudoyberganova, the couple's troubles
reportedly began shortly before the New Year, when an unknown
individual began making harassing phone calls to her. On
December 31, as Karimov and Khudoyberganova were celebrating
the New Year with their family, the unknown individual called
again and said he was downstairs outside of their apartment
building. When Karimov and a few of Khudoyberganova's
relatives went downstairs, they were attacked by a large
number of unknown men. Several of Khudoyberganova's
relatives were reportedly injured in the attack, including
Karimov's mother, Gulhar Aripova, the head of a local human
rights group. Police arrived in the midst of the fracas, and
proceeded to arrest Karimov and allow the attackers to flee.
After Karimov's arrest, Khudoyberganova reported being
threatened by law enforcement officials not to publicize
Karimov's case. Khudoyberganova speculated that Karimov was
the victim of a deliberate provocation and was targeted
because of his opposition activities and his desire to
participate in the 2009 Parliamentary election as an
independent candidate.


4. (C) On May 19, Khudoyberganova told poloff that a
criminal court in Tashkent on April 25 sentenced Karimov to
four years' imprisonment for assaulting two brothers, Karim

and Alim Nasirov, with a knife. The charges against Karimov
originally included attempted murder, but the charge was
later dropped. Karimov will spend his sentence at a minimum
security prison, which he will be allowed to leave during the
day to work. Khudoyberganova said that they did not plan to
appeal the conviction, as they considered his sentence
relatively light (the prosecutor in the case reportedly
called for a ten year sentence),and Karimov's sentence could
be lengthened on appeal. Instead, Khudoyberganova intended
to file a complaint with the Supreme Court. Khudoyberganova
reported seeing Karimov last on April 29 at the Tashtuyrma
prison in Tashkent, were he is being held until he is
transferred to another prison. She noted that he appeared to
be in good health, but under a lot of mental stress.


5. (C) Fearing for her family's safety, Khudoyberganova told
poloff that she was sending several of her family members to
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where they intended to apply for asylum
with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
She did not intend to leave Uzbekistan, as she was
nine-month's pregnant and she did not want to abandon her
husband.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DIRECTOR DOUBTS SPOUSE'S ACCOUNT
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6. (C) Human Rights Watch (HRW) director Igor Vorontsov has
closely followed Karimov's case and has been in close contact
with Khudoyberganova, who used to work for HRW's Tashkent
office and for several other human rights groups in town. On
several occasions, Vorontsov expressed his doubt to poloff
about Khudoyberganova's account of the alleged attack on
December 31, noting that it appeared to change over time
(Comment: Poloff also noted that Khudoyberganova's account
had changed over time. For example, in January, she alleged
that her family was attacked by thirty individuals, but in
May she said that they were attacked by only five
individuals. End comment.)


7. (C) In early May, Vorontsov told poloff that he had
spoken with Karimov's lawyer, respected human rights lawyer
Tatiana Davydova, who told him that she believed that Karimov
was in fact guilty of assaulting the two brothers with a
knife. Dadydova reportedly expressed great frustration that
Khudoyberganova had originally hidden from her the fact that
she used to be romantically involved with one of the Nasirov
brothers. She believed that Karimov became jealous when
Nasirov called Khudoyberganova, and later assaulted him and
his brother with a knife (Comment: When asked by poloff on
May 19, Khudoyberganova denied ever knowing the Nasirov
brothers. End comment.) Given his doubts, Vorontsov decided
not to pursue Karimov's case as a human rights issue.
However, he noted that he was under heavy pressure to do so
from his HRW colleagues who used to work in Tashkent and were
friends with Khudoyberganova.

PORTRAIT OF AN OPPOSITIONIST AS A YOUNG MAN
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8. (C) In October 2007, poloff briefly met with the
twenty-something Karimov, who struck him as a highly
ambitious young man. Karimov had returned to Uzbekistan in
2007 from Sweden, where he had worked for a time for Erk
opposition party leader Muhammad Solih. According to
Karimov, in 2006, he received a letter from Uzbek government
intermediaries, which offered him a leadership position in
the pro-governmental Kamolat youth group if he returned to
Uzbekistan and abandoned his opposition activities. He was
then reportedly called by a government intermediary based in
Ukraine, who invited Karimov to Kyiv to discuss the issue
further. Karimov said that he spent six months in Kyiv on

the Uzbek government dime, spending most of his time with the
children of wealthy Uzbek government officials who lived or
studied in Ukraine. Karimov eventually accepted the
government's offer to abandon his opposition activities and
return to Uzbekistan, though he decided not to accept the
position at Kamolat.


9. (C) Karimov insisted he accepted the government's offer
in good faith, but he also expressed to poloff interest in
running as an independent candidate in the Fall 2008
Parliamentary elections. Despite his young age, Karimov
considered himself to be a savvy political operator. As he
explained to poloff, he believed that he could successfully
pursue a political career in Uzbekistan based on a uniquely
Uzbek form of triangulation. In addition to his ties to the
opposition, Karimov said he had connections to conservative
religious leaders (including former Mufti Muhammad Sodiq)
through his wife's family, who are from Tashkent's old city,
and his grandfather, who was originally from Namangan. He
also claimed ties to the ruling elite, noting that many
members of his family held government positions, including
his father, despite the fact that his grandfather was a
prominent oppositionist.


10. (C) During the meeting with poloff, Karimov
(implausibly) accused many human rights activists and
oppositionists in Tashkent of being government agents and
saboteurs, including several prominent individuals working
for the Erk, Birlik, and Free Farmers opposition parties and
various human rights groups. In particular, he accused
current Free Farmers Party leaders Nigara Khidoyatova of
"appearing almost from nowhere" to wrest control of the party
from his grandfather in 2003. Karimov believed the takeover
of the party was orchestrated by Khidoyatova's father, the
academic Goga Khidoyatov, whom he also accused of working for
the security services throughout his career.

DEATH SENTENCE OF KHUDOYBERGANOVA'S BROTHER COMMUTED
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11. (C) During her meeting with poloff on May 19,
Khudoyberganova also reported that her brother Iskander
Khudoyberganov, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for
murder, had his sentence changed to 25 years' imprisonment on
April 8, in line with the abolishment of the death penalty on
January 1, 2008. Since Iskander has already spent 6 years in
prison, he will serve another 19 years. Iskander was also
transferred from death row at a maximum security prison to a
lighter security prison in Jaslyk, Karakalpakstan (Comment:
Although Jaslyk is often referred to as one of Uzbekistan's
most notorious prisons, Khudoyberganova explained that
several separate prison buildings exist in Jaslyk, and some
of them have better conditions than others. End comment.)
Khudoyberganova noted that the Supreme Court was reviewing
each death penalty case individually before deciding to
change death sentences to 20 or 25 years' imprisonment.
According to Mothers Against the Death Penalty and Torture
director Tamara Chikunova, the government has already
reviewed almost twenty death penalty cases.

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


12. (C) Even by Uzbekistan standards, the Anvar Karimov case
is murky. It is always possible that Karimov was targeted
for provocation by authorities because of his involvement in
opposition politics. Nevertheless, we do not believe that
this was the case. More likely, as Karimov's own lawyer
reportedly told the Human Rights Watch director in Tashkent,
Karimov assaulted the Nasirov brothers after one of them
harassed his wife by telephone.



13. (C) We also have serious doubts about Khudoyberganova's
credibility based on our previous encounters with her. For
example, last summer, Khudoyberganova told poloff that a
prisoner being held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, had confessed to the murder her brother allegedly
committed (Note: Khudoyberganova has long maintained that her
brother was innocent. End note.) She then requested
poloff's assistance in providing her a visa to travel to
Philadelphia to visit the prisoner's American lawyer.
Despite repeated requests by poloff, Khudoyberganova never
followed up with the name and contact information of the
American lawyer, and poloff began to suspect that
Khudoyberganova invented the story. We are also concerned
that her account of the alleged December 31 attack on her
husband and family members has changed over time.
NORLAND