UZBEKISTAN: REPORTS OF CRACKDOWN ON "NUR" RELIGIOUS GROUP

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019-02-13
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KIRF KISL KPAO PGOV PINR PREL SOCI TU UZ
SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN: REPORTS OF CRACKDOWN ON "NUR" RELIGIOUS GROUP

REF: a) TASHKENT 56

CLASSIFIED BY: Richard Fitzmaurice, Poloff; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (C) Summary: Uzbek authorities appear to be significantly
ratcheting up the pressure on suspected members of the banned Nur
(or "Nurcilar") religious organization, which is associated with
the conservative (but not extremist) religious teachings and
Pan-Turkish ideology of Turkish scholar Fethullah Gullen. The
editor of the "Irmoq" magazine reported to one of our FSN's that
five of his colleagues were tortured in pre-trial detention after
being arrested in September 2008 and were currently on trial for
Nur membership. Three other journalists from another publication
were also reportedly arrested and are currently being held in
pre-trial detention. During the editor's interrogation (who has
not been charged),NSS officials reportedly accused him of treason
for receiving phone calls from the Embassy's former Press
Assistant. Separately, another Embassy FSN told us that a U.S.
exchange program alumnus was being tried for membership in Nur,
though it was unclear whether the cases are connected. These
reports suggest the journalists are being targeted for their
suspected membership in Nur, not because of their writing, which
was innocuous and had been approved by government censors. End
summary.



EZGULIK REPORTS FIVE JOURNALISTS ARRESTED

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2. (U) On January 29, Radio Free Europe reported that the Uzbek
Prosecutor General's Office denied reports that five journalists
from the "Irmoq" ("Stream") magazine were recently arrested in
Uzbekistan. On January 26, the independent Ezgulik human rights
group reported that five of the magazine's journalists, including
Shuhrat Mustafoev, were arrested in September 2008 by police and
accused of spreading the ideas of the banned Turkish Islamic group
"Nur."



BACKGROUND ON "NUR" RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION

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3. (U) "Nur" (or "Nurcilar") was founded by Kurdish Mullah Said
Nursi after World War One and promoted the adoption of Shariah law
in Turkey. In recent years, "Nur" has become associated with the
conservative religious and Pan-Turkish ideology of Turkish scholar
Fethullah Gullen, who currently resides in exile in the United
States. After the Central Asian states gained independence, Gullen
supported the opening of Turkish high schools throughout the
region, including in Uzbekistan. Nur's publications also were
freely available in Uzbekistan at the time. While the schools
continue to operate elsewhere in the region, the Uzbek-Turkish
schools were forced to close in 1999 following a series of bombings
in Tashkent blamed on Islamic militants. The Uzbek government also
began a crackdown on Nur's membership and literature as part of a
general crackdown on independent Muslim activity. Nur is now
listed as a banned religious organization by the Uzbek Religious
Affairs Committee (reftel). Outside of Uzbekistan, Nur's ideology
is widely seen as conservative, but not extremist. There is no
precise data on the number of "Nur" adherents in Uzbekistan.

TASHKENT 00000177 002 OF 005



IRMOQ'S EDITOR CONFIRMS ARRESTS, REPORTS ADDITIONAL ARRESTS

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4. (C) On February 6, the Embassy's Press Assistant met with
Irmoq's former editor, Khamza Jumayev, who is also a relatively
well-known television journalist in Uzbekistan. Jumayev told our
FSN that five colleagues from Irmoq, including three journalists
and two individuals involved in the newspaper's finances, were
arrested by Uzbek authorities in September 2008 and were currently
being tried in Tashkent. In addition, Jumayev reported that three
additional journalists from Irmoq's sister publication, "YETI
Iqlim" ("Seven Continents"),were also arrested and are currently
being held in pre-trial detention. According to Jumayev, they all
face charges of producing and disseminating materials containing a
threat to public order (Criminal Code Article 244 part one),which
carries a possible prison sentence of five to eight years.




5. (C) Jumayev himself has not yet been charged with any crime,
but National Security Service (NSS) officers seized his passport in
August 2008 and have since interrogated him on several occasions.
While NSS authorities have not physically abused him, Jumayev
reported that they have tried to pressure him into identifying Nur
members (including by printing out his phone records and demanding
that he point out who was a member of Nur),which he has refused to
do. Jumayev further explained that Irmoq and YETI Iqlim have not
been formally closed by authorities, but ceased publication in
August 2008.



JUMAYEV DENIES AFFILIATION WITH NUR

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6. (C) Jumayev denied to our FSN that Irmoq or his colleagues were
involved in promoting religious extremism or Nur. He explained
that Irmoq, which published its first of seventeen editions in
March 2007, was a popular science magazine (similar to an Uzbek
version of Scientific American) and very rarely printed articles
about religion. He gave the FSN a collection of Irmoq's
publications, which was later examined by the FSN and poloff and
confirmed Jumayev's description of the magazine. He added that the
magazine was officially registered with Uzbek authorities and that
all of its editions were cleared by a censor in the Presidential
Apparatus before publication. He believed that one of the
publication's financers might have been involved in Nur, but denied
that he or the rest of his colleagues had any connections with the
organization. However, Jumayev indicated that he was a pious
Muslim and had graduated from an Uzbek-Turkish high school.



DEFENDENTS ACCUSE AUTHORITIES OF TORTURE AT TRIAL

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7. (C) Jumayev, who has been called to serve as a witness at his
colleagues' trial, told our FSN that his colleagues testified
openly in court that they were tortured during pre-trial detention
by NSS officers. NSS officers allegedly beat them and placed

TASHKENT 00000177 003 OF 005



needles under their fingernails in a bid to force them to confess
to membership in Nur, but the defendants refused. Jumayev
testified at trial that none of his colleagues were involved in Nur
or religious extremism. As of February 6, the trial was ongoing.



JUMAYEV SPECULATES ABOUT NSS MOTIVES...

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8. (C) Jumayev explained to our FSN that the case originally began
after an inmate and acquaintance of one of the Irmoq financers
reportedly told the NSS that the financer was a member of Nur.
Jumayev speculated that the case was being pursued by low-level NSS
officials who sought to advance their careers by racking up
successful arrests and prosecutions of suspected extremists. He
noted that real religious extremists like members of Hizb ut-Tahrir
were much harder to track down, which made suspected members of Nur
easier targets.



...BELIEVES NSS OFFICERS SEEKING TO AVOID PUBLICITY

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9. (C) Jumayev reportedly believed that the NSS officers were
seeking to avoid wider publicity which might expose the
deficiencies in their case and were prepared to retaliate against
anyone who spoke out. He noted that like him, the three
journalists from the "YETI Iqlim" sister publication were
originally interrogated by the NSS as witnesses in the case.
However, after they formally complained to the General Prosecutor's
Office about their treatment by NSS officers, they were arrested by
the NSS and charged as defendants in the case, and they remain in
pre-trial detention awaiting a separate trial.




10. (C) In contrast, Jumayev said he refused to talk with Radio
Free Europe after they called him about the case. Jumayev hoped
that if he did not openly talk about the case, the NSS would not
pursue charges against him. He also believed that his visibility
as a relatively well-known television journalist might offer him a
certain amount of protection. However, he still feared that the
NSS might still charge him at a later date.



PUBLIC AFFAIRS EMPLOYEE APPOACHED BY NSS AFTER MEETING

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11. (C) The day after meeting with Jumayev, the Public Affairs
Section Press Assistant's home was unexpectedly visited by an NSS
officer who claimed he was checking who was legally registered in
that apartment. The NSS officer, who spoke only to the employee's
mother-in-law, was very well informed. He had knowledge of who
actually lived there since some of her family members were not
legally registered at that address. Because the Press Assistant
lives in an apartment building located directly across the street
from "Oksaroy", the Uzbek Presidential Palace, this explanation may

TASHKENT 00000177 004 OF 005



be plausible in light of the very high level of protective security
surrounding President Karimov. The fact that only 24 hours passed
between the meeting with the editor and the NSS apartment visit
might also indicate interest tied to the Irmoq case.




12. (C) Jumayev reported that during his interrogation, NSS
officials also questioned him about calls he received from the
Embassy's former Press Assistant, who has since left the Embassy.
These calls were to invite Jumayev to Embassy events. During his
interrogations, the NSS officials reportedly accused Jumayev of
being a traitor for receiving calls from the Embassy employee, and
actually showed him a register of received calls that included the
former Press Assistant's mobile number.



UGRAD ALUMNUS ALSO TRIED FOR MEMBERSHIP IN NUR

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13. (C) On January 20, another local Embassy employee reported to
poloff that Uzbek authorities had begun a trial against his former
classmate, Abdulaziz Dadahanov, who is also a UGRAD
(university-level U.S. government exchange program) alumnus, for
membership in Nur. The Embassy employee was reportedly informed
about the incident by Dadahanov's wife, Aziza, who reported that
the judge in the case had demanded (before the trial had even
commenced) a 2,000 dollar bribe in exchange for passing down a
lighter sentence against her husband. On February 6, Aziza
confirmed to poloff that her husband's trial was ongoing at a court
in Tashkent province.




14. (C) Aziza told our FSN that Dadahanov was an active member of
Nur. The Embassy employee, who graduated from a Turkish-Uzbek high
school with Dadahanov, observed that the school had stocked Nur
literature in its library and that many of its teachers from Turkey
were active Nur members. Dadahanov is registered in the Embassy's
alumni database as a UGRAD participant in 2001-2002 who studied
finance and international studies at Fairfield University in
Connecticut.




15. (C) Comment: We have not been able to confirm whether
Dadahanov's case is connected to that of the Irmoq journalists,
though it is possible, as Dadahanov was arrested around the same
time as the journalists. Dadahanov is not a journalist, but he
might have been involved in distributing materials for Nur or
supporting its activities financially. End comment.



ACTIVIST REPORTS NUR MEMBERS INTERROGATED IN BUKHARA

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16. (C) During a meeting with the Ambassador and poloff on
February 9, Bukhara-based human rights activist Shukhrat Ganiev
reported that 32 individuals who had graduated from the former
Turkish-Uzbek high school in Bukhara had been recently called in
and interrogated by local authorities. Ganiev had earlier told

TASHKENT 00000177 005 OF 005



poloff that three students who had graduated from the Uzbek-Turkish
high school were imprisoned for suspected Nur membership in 1999.



COMMENT

--------------




17. (C) Uzbek authorities appear to be raising the pressure on
suspected members of Nur. Jumayev's speculation that the case was
concocted by low-level NSS officials attempting to earn their
stripes is plausible, though the reported interrogations in Bukhara
suggests that this might be part of a wider crackdown against
suspected Nur members, the exact basis for which is unknown. While
the general climate for Uzbek Muslims has eased in the past year,
as reported in the human rights and religious freedom reports, the
government frowns on the type of conservative interpretation of the
Koran that Nur espouses. It also appears that the Irmoq
journalists and financers were arrested because of their suspected
ties to Nur rather than their writing, which was entirely innocuous
and had been approved by government censors. Some of the
individuals arrested were members of Nur, while others, including
Jumayev, had past associations which might have convinced NSS
officials that they were also Nur members (or at least made it
easier to fabricate a case against them).




18. (C) Our first priority remains the protection of the Embassy's
local employees. RSO has been alerted about the case, and we have
instructed the Press Assistant FSN to keep us informed if she is
approached by the NSS again.
NORLAND

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