Uznews, Tashkent, 09 Sep 2008 – The Uzbek parliament’s upper chamber, the Senate, has approved amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code to ban human rights activists from acting as lawyers or their assistance in trials.
According to new amendments made to Article 49 of the Uzbek Criminal Procedure Code, only university-graduate lawyers with a Justice Ministry licence have right to work as lawyers.
Relatives of defendants can take part in a trial only jointly with licensed lawyers.
Lawyer from Tashkent Bahtiyor Sultanov believes that these amendments do not prevent human rights activists from getting involved in trial.
Others believe this provision aims to remove human rights activists from courtrooms and reduce their status which means that human rights activists will not have right to file lawsuits without lawyers’ involvement.
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