Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09TASHKENT55
2009-01-13 10:49:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tashkent
Cable title:  

UZBEKISTAN: ANATOMY OF A HIZB UT-TAHRIR CASE

Tags:  PHUM KCRM KIRF KISL KPAO PGOV PINR PREL PTER SOCI UZ 
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RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019-01-13
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KIRF KISL KPAO PGOV PINR PREL PTER SOCI UZ
SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN: ANATOMY OF A HIZB UT-TAHRIR CASE

REF: a) TASHKENT 2

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

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 07 TASHKENT 000055

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AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019-01-13
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KIRF KISL KPAO PGOV PINR PREL PTER SOCI UZ
SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN: ANATOMY OF A HIZB UT-TAHRIR CASE

REF: a) TASHKENT 2

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


1. (C) Summary: This cable examines in depth a recent Hizb
ut-Tahrir case reported by state-controlled and independent media
and a local human rights activist. While the case highlights
on-going abuses in the government's campaign against suspected
religious extremists, it also demonstrates how activists and
independent internet news websites also sometimes exaggerate
details about such cases. Separately, state-controlled and
independent media outlets reported on several arrests of HT members
in Uzbekistan during 2008, though the numbers of such arrests still
appears to be down from previous years (septel).




2. (C) Summary continued: On November 17, state-controlled media
reported that Tashkent police had uncovered a Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT)
cell of 27 women. Police reportedly released the cell's leaders
after they repented and provided names of other HT members. On
December 3, poloff met with a group of women who reported that two
of their female relatives were currently being detained by Tashkent
police on suspicion of HT membership. The women also stated that
one of their relatives was beaten by police and forced to watch a
pornographic movie in an attempt to elicit a confession from her.
From the discussion, it was unclear whether the case of the two
detained women was connected to the HT cell of 27 women, as the
relatives provided conflicting information about the total number
of women detained. One of the activists who arranged the meeting

later exaggerated details about the case in public reports, which
were then picked up and further distorted by Radio Free Europe and
a HT activist group in the United Kingdom. End summary.



AUTHORITES UNCOVER HT CELL OF 27 WOMEN IN TASHKENT

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




3. (U) On November 17, the state-controlled UzReport.com and
Gorizont.uz websites reported that police in Tashkent had uncovered
a HT cell of 27 women in Tashkent after its existence had been
reported to them by two residents of Tashkent's Sabir-Rahimov
district, Nigora Ibragimova and Clara Rahimova. A preliminary
police investigation reportedly showed that two other women, Karima
Hikmatova and Muhabbat Sadykova, headed the HT cell and had
attempted to recruit Ibragimova and Rahimova to raise funds, spread
extremist literature, and recruit new members. During the
investigation, Hikmatova and Sadykova reportedly revealed the
identities of other HT leaders, including those who allegedly
communicated with HT "foreign centers." The article reported that
criminal charges were not brought against Hikmatova and Sadykova,
who were released after they had repented "under guarantees by
their relatives and mahalla (neighborhood committee) leaders."




4. (C) Shortly after the article appeared on the state-controlled
websites, independent human rights activist Surat Ikramov released
his own article about the case, directly referencing the
Gorizont.uz article. In his article, Ikramov speculated that
police would fabricate criminal cases against the detained women,
particularly those with relatives already imprisoned for HT
membership. He also reported that police arrested Nazokat
Tashpulatova on November 17 and brought her to the Shayhantahur
District police station, where they reportedly showed her photos of
the detained women and demanded that she provide false information
against them. According to Ikramov, Tashpulatova's father,
step-father, mother, and brother were all previously imprisoned for

TASHKENT 00000055 002 OF 007



HT membership.



WOMEN CLAIM RELATIVES INTERROGATED FOR HT MEMBERSHIP

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




5. (C) During two separate meetings arranged by Ikramov and Erk
opposition activist Dilorom Ishakova on December 3, poloff met with
three women who claimed that two of their female relatives were
being interrogated by Ministry of Interior officials in Tashkent.
The first meeting, which was arranged by Ikramov, was with Nodira
Karimova of Tashkent and Mavlyuda Yusupova from Kashkadarya
province, who reported that their female relatives - Shakhlo
Sultanova and her mother, Sevara Sultanova - were detained on
separate occasions by police in Tashkent in November. The women
stated that Severa Sultanova was arrested by police on November 12
and was being held in pre-trial detention in the basement of the
Tashkent City Ministry of Interior building. They also said that
Severa's daughter, Shakhlo Sultanova, was first detained by police
as a witness against her mother on November 29.



SHAKHLO ALLEGEDLY BEATEN, FORCED TO WATCH PORNOGRAPHIC FILM

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




6. (C) Karimova and Yasupova reported that in a bid to force
Shakhlo to confess that her mother was a HT member, police hit her
on the head and forced her to watch a pornographic film,
threatening that the same could happen to her. They said Shakhlo
was released on November 30, but was called in by police for
further questioning, along with her lawyer, on December 1 and
December 3.




7. (C) In contrast, Karimova and Yusupova reported that they had
no information on the treatment of Severa Sultanova. They
initially told poloff that a total of 27 women were being detained
as part of the case, but then inexplicably said they knew of only
ten other women who were detained as part of the case. They also
reported that they did not know the ten other women and had no
specific information about their cases. While Ikramov suggested in
a November 30 article (see para 14) that the Sultanovas' case was
connected to that of the 27 women, he told poloff on December 3
that he believed the Sultanovas' case was separate.



SECOND MEETING WITH SHAKHLO'S MOTHER-IN-LAW

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




8. (C) Poloff's second meeting on December 3, this time arranged
by Erk opposition activist Dilorom Ishakova, was with Musharraf
Hudoyberdiyeva, the mother-in-law of Shaklo Sultanova.
Hudoyberdiyeva reported that Shakhlo was called in for questioning
a third time by police on that day. During the meeting, she
received a phone call from Shakhlo's lawyer, who reported that
while Shakhlo still had not confessed that her mother was HT, her
mother had gone ahead and signed a confession that Shakhlo was a

TASHKENT 00000055 003 OF 007



member of HT "since birth." The lawyer further reported that the
other ten women detained in the case also had confessed that
Shakhlo was a HT member, but again provided no specific information
about the identities of the other detained women. Hudoyberdiyeva
speculated that police might have threatened or used physical force
against Severa Sultanova to force a confession against her
daughter.




9. (C) Since the two meetings in December 3, both Ikramov and
Ishakova have not reported any new developments in the case, though
Ikramov publicly released two articles about the case on November
30 and December 1 which exaggerated several details (see para 14).



SEVERAL OTHER RELATIVES OF WOMEN ALREADY IMPRISONED

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




10. (C) During the meetings with poloff, the three women explained
that they had several other relatives imprisoned over the years for
HT membership, some of whom had died in prison. Karimova explained
that her husband was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to 13 years'
imprisonment for HT membership and is currently serving his
sentence at prison number 49 in Kashkadarya province. Karimova
last saw her husband in September and noted that he had lost weight
since his imprisonment. Her son was arrested in 2003 and
originally sentenced to five years' imprisonment for HT. While
imprisoned at the Jaslyk prison in Uzbekistan's Autonomous Republic
of Karakalpakstan, his prison sentence was reportedly extended by
three and half years in 2007 after he was accused of praying in
contravention of prison regulations (Note: Karimova was unclear
about what "praying in contravention of prison regulations" meant.
Prison officials report that inmates are freely able to practice
their religion. However, activists have long reported that
individuals, especially those convicted of religious extremism,
have been punished for praying or praying outside of certain hours,
such as before dawn. End note.) Karimova reported seeing bruises
on her son's head during a meeting in February, at which time she
was allowed to give him medicine, and last reported seeing her son
in August.




11. (C) Yasupova reported that her husband was sentenced to 20
years' imprisonment for HT membership in 2000 and is currently
being held at Jaslyk. She explained that prison officials refused,
without explanation, to allow her to see her husband on two
occasions in November. She reported hearing from the relatives of
other inmates who visited Jaslyk that her husband was beaten on the
heels and put into an isolation cell for reading a newspaper,
supposedly in contravention of prison regulations (Note: Prisons in
Uzbekistan have libraries, and we know of no formal regulations
preventing inmates from reading newspapers. However, activists
have long reported that religious prisoners typically face greater
restrictions on their activities than ordinary inmates. End note.)
She last reported seeing him in July. According to Yasupova, her
husband contracted tuberculosis in prison and authorities have
refused to give him medication.




12. (C) Hudoyberdiyeva reported that her son and Shakhlo's
husband, Iskandar Hudoyberdiyev, was arrested in Surkhundarya
province and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for HT membership
in 2000 and is currently being held at a prison in Andijon. Her

TASHKENT 00000055 004 OF 007



previous and current husbands were also reportedly arrested for HT
membership. Her first husband, Farkhod Usmanov, was arrested and
held at the Ministry of Interior building in Tashkent in 1999,
where he was reportedly beaten to death by officers. In 2002,
Hudoyberdiyeva remarried, and that same year, her second husband
was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for HT membership.
Hudoyberdiyev last saw her husband at the Jaslyk prison in October,
and observed that he still had difficulty walking due to a police
beating he endured while in pre-trial detention in 2002. In
addition, she reported that her brother, Shukrillo Azamov, was
sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for HT membership in 1999,
but was released from prison in 2002. However, in 2003, he was
arrested and imprisoned again for HT membership. In 2006, he died
at a prison in Zarafshan from liver disease.



CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS OF RELATIVES' HT MEMBERSHIP

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




13. (C) According to Karimova, both her husband and son were not
religious extremists, but rather conservative Muslims who regularly
attended prayers at a local Mosque. However, Hudoyberdiyeva
admitted that both of her husbands and her son Iskandar (Shakhlo's
husband) were HT members, though she maintained that Shakhlo and
her brother were not HT members.



ACTIVIST REPORTS STORY PUBLICLY, HYPES DETAILS

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




14. (C) Before poloff's meetings with the women, Ikramov publicly
distributed two articles about the case on November 30 and December
1 which exaggerated several details. In a November 30 article
entitled "The Number of Arrests of Believers Is Growing," Ikramov
claimed that all 27 women in the alleged HT cell were "interrogated
and tortured." He also reported that both Shakhlo and Severa
Sultonova were tortured. In a second article from December 1,
Ikramov reported that Shakhlo had signed a confession after being
tortured by six police officers. In each of these cases, what
relatives reported to poloff (some of whose claims were made in
front of Ikramov) did not back up the claims made in Ikramov's
articles. A more accurate description of events was reported by
the independent Uznews.net website (which, ironically, is usually
among the least dependable sources of objective information about
Uzbekistan),which stated that Shakhlo had been beaten and
intimidated by Tashkent police in an attempt to force her to
confess to membership in a religious extremist group.



OTHER RECENT DUBIOUS CLAIMS BY IKRAMOV

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




15. (C) Ikramov has made other dubious claims in public recently.
While attending a Human Rights Day roundtable at the Embassy on
December 10, he claimed, to the disbelief of everyone else in
attendance, that the 2005 Andijon events "were completely
orchestrated by the Karimov regime." After attending an evening
reception, Ikramov was quoted by Radio Free Europe's Uzbek-language

TASHKENT 00000055 005 OF 007



Ozodlik.org website as claiming that the only assistance provided
to human rights defenders by the United States was inviting them to
public events such as Human Rights Day. Ikramov had earlier made
similar claims to poloff, despite the fact that he had participated
in an International Visitor's program with several other
independent human rights activists in September. His organization,
which largely consists of himself, also has received more than
50,000 dollars in assistance from the Embassy's Democracy
Commission since 2003, an amount far greater than what most other
human rights group in the country have received.




16. (C) Comment: Ikramov has a large ego and frequently argues to
poloff that he is the only serious human rights activist in
Uzbekistan and often refuses to meet together with any other
activists, claiming that they are all either hacks or government
informants. He also constantly hounds poloff for further financial
assistance through the Embassy's Democracy Commission fund and
other sources. Given his peculiar personality and behavior, we
believe Ikramov might be exaggerating details of HT cases to simply
gain greater attention, either for the case at hand or simply for
himself. It is possible that he believes the more attention is
brought to his reporting, the more likely he will receive funding
in the future. It is also possible that years of following such
cases, which no doubt involve serious human rights violations, have
conditioned Ikramov to jump to conclusions that the evidence at
hand does not fully support. That said, we continue to believe
that Ikramov is one of the more active human rights defenders in
Uzbekistan and we will continue to closely follow his reporting
(though this says more about the sorry state of local human rights
organizations in Uzbekistan than it does about Ikramov). While
some details are clearly hyped, there is usually a kernel of truth
to Ikramov's reporting. He is also practically the only activist
who publicly reports on HT cases on a regular basis, though his
misreporting of the details of the Sultanovas' case leads us to
wonder the degree to which he has exaggerated details about similar
cases in the past. End comment.



HYPED STORY PICKED UP BY RFE, HT ACTIVISTS IN UK

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




17. (C) Ikramov's report on the Sultanova' case appears to have
been picked up by Radio Free Europe's website, which on December 5
reported that 28 women were detained that week on religious
extremism charges in Tashkent. The article quotes an unnamed
source in the Tashkent police stating that two of the women were
regional leaders of HT. The article, supposedly quoting Shakhlo,
incorrectly identifies her as the "mother-in-law" of one of the
detainees (Comment: We believe that RFE simply confused the
identity of Shakhlo with that of her mother-in-law, Hudoyberdiyeva.
End comment.) The "Shakhlo" quoted in the article claims that
police "tortured her daughter-in-law in effort to get her to make a
confession" and that "the detained group of women was filmed for a
pornographic video" (Comment: We believe that either Ikramov or the
relatives fed the exaggerated information to RFE, which either
took their claims at face-value or did not fact-check its article
very carefully. End comment.)




18. (C) On December 22, a group calling itself "the Sisters of
Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain" posted on its website that it held a
demonstration in front of the Uzbek Embassy in London on December
20 and delivered a letter addressed to Uzbek Ambassador Otabek

TASHKENT 00000055 006 OF 007



Akbarov and signed by Dr. Nazreen Nawaz, Women's Media
Representative for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain. The letter, which
appeared to directly reference the December 5 RFE article, claimed
that Uzbek authorities had arrested 28 Muslim women for membership
in HT and filmed them for a pornographic video. The letter claimed
that the incident showed that the "on-going repression of political
dissent in Uzbekistan continues unabated since the Andijon
massacres under the now overused guise of fighting terrorism..."
and reflected "...a weak and desperate government, unable to quell
the ever rising tide of support and unstoppable calls for the
return of the Shariah and the Khilafah state in the region." The
letter further alleges that the "Western governments" the Uzbek
government sought as allies "have lost their moral authorities
amongst their own people and the world over: preaching freedom,
human rights, the rule of law, democracy and women's rights, yet
they embrace dictatorships such as yours...some have even
outsourced torture to your prisons in order to extract
'intelligence' as part of their war on terror...now they choose to
ignore the sexual abuse of women in countries that are their allies
- the degradation and humiliation of women, a fair price to pay it
seems to protect their political interests."



HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ALSO PUZZLED BY CASE

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




19. (C) Poloff also discussed the case with Human Rights Watch
researcher Anna Dolidze, who temporarily visited Uzbekistan in
December. Dolidze reported meeting with Karimova and
Hudoyberdiyeva and also being puzzled by the women's conflicting
accounts of the total number of women allegedly detained in the
case. She explained that according to HRW's case reporting and
vetting guidelines, she could only confirm that Severa Sultanova
and Shakhlo Sultanova were detained by police and suffered some
form of intimidation.



COMMENT

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




20. (C) The Sultonovas' case demonstrates that police continue to
abuse suspected religious extremists. In previous years, there
were frequent reports of individuals being detained on religious
extreme charges based mostly on outward expressions of Muslim
religious faith. Few such cases were reported in the last two
years, as authorities now appear to be primarily targeting
relatives of individuals already imprisoned on religious extremism
charges. Whether or not the Sultanovas are actually HT members,
several of their relatives are HT members, and Uzbek authorities
clearly do not make such subtle distinctions. It is possible that
such individuals are easy targets for police officers seeking to
prove to their superiors that they are being tough on alleged
terrorists. The fact that authorities appear to be now targeting
female relatives also suggests that many male HT members have
already been imprisoned, been driven deep underground after years
of arrests, or have already fled to other areas with less severe
repression, such as the Kyrgyz portions of the Ferghana Valley,
where HT appears to be much more visibly active. Several sources
have confirmed that HT is much less visibly active in Uzbekistan
than ten years' ago (reftel),no doubt partly due to the
government's severe crackdown on suspected members since the 1990s.
Our main concern in such cases continues to be that suspects are

TASHKENT 00000055 007 OF 007



frequently abused and denied due process. We also continue to
worry that Uzbek prisons, where large numbers of suspected
religious prisoners continue to be held (and only very rarely are
released),could serve as incubators for a new generation of
religious extremists.




21. (C) The case also provides a good example of how human rights
violations are sometimes exaggerated by local activists and then
misreported by independent internet news websites. Unfortunately,
given the government's basic refusal to answer queries and the
absence of international journalists and human rights groups on the
ground, internet news websites, mainly operated by exiles abroad,
often remain the only publicly available source of information on
internal developments in Uzbekistan. These websites in turn rely
primarily on local activists for information, many of whom are tied
to the political opposition and lack objectivity. After years of
sensational human rights reporting - not all of it accurate - many
are now given to believe anything they read about Uzbekistan on the
internet, no matter how absurd, and information that is at best
rumor is later cited as fact. Radio Free Europe has often played a
key role in this phenomenon, as it is viewed by many as a more
trustworthy source of information (which it frequently is not) and
representing the official view of the U.S. government (though it
makes no such claim). The Sultanovas' case is only one of several
human rights-related cases misreported by RFE this year. As the
Uzbek government also views RFE as representing the views of the
U.S. government, distorted reports of human rights violations
carried by RFE hurts our credibility and makes it more difficult to
convince the government to take appropriate actions to alleviate
human rights violations, a task that is already difficult enough.
In this particular case, RFE's misreporting was also used to score
propaganda points by an anti-Western group affiliated with HT.
Nevertheless, Uzbek police continue to commit serious human rights
abuses when investigating alleged religious extremists, and we will
continue to follow such cases to the best of our ability.
BUTCHER

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