Uznews, Tashkent, 19 Jun 2009 – Eight European and Uzbek human rights organisations have asked the EU special envoy for Central Asia to help save the imprisoned dissident writer Yusuf Juma from torture in the Jaslyk prison.
The letter, signed by ACAT, FIDH and Front Line among others, was sent to Pierre Morel, the EU special envoy for Central Asia.
In the letter, human rights activists drew attention to the life and health of Bukhara writer Yusuf Juma who has been held for almost a year in the country’s worst prison – Jaslyk – in northern Karakalpakstan.
He was detained in December 2007 for protesting against President Islam Karimov’s unconstitutional third term and sentenced to five years in April 2008 on trumped-up charges of hurting police officers.
In prison, Juma faces torture because prison guards treat him as Karimov’s personal enemy. After a recent meeting with him, his daughter Feruza said she could see fresh wounds all over his body.
Human rights activists believe that the EU should urgently get involved in the situation and stop torture, otherwise the Uzbek dissident writer would die.
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