The Uzbek authorities continue their methodical and deliberate campaign aiming to drive off the territory of the country all Western organizations facilitating development of civil society. The Tashkent Municipal Court ruled to liquidate the Uzbek mission of the American Bar Association (ABA/CEELI) on April 27.

ABA/CEELI is a non-government organization with headquarters in Washington. It is financed by the US Department of State and USAID. ABA/CEELI mission was registered by the Uzbek Justice Ministry in 19. Susan Carnduff has been Mission Director since 2004.

Among other projects, ABA/CEELI promoted establishment of an international net Ferghana Valley Interests Promoter Network of non-government organizations of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. A law (clinic) center specializing in human rights buses was opened in Tashkent with help from ABA/CEELI, and the first law firm was established. Its lawyers provided free legal assistance to customers in the matters concerning torture, illegitimate detention, and other violations of fundamental civil rights.

ABA/CEELI mission actively promoted Detainees' Defense From the Moment of Detention program in Uzbekistan. This is what it boiled down to: every detainee suspected of a crime or his family or friends should be able to find a lawyer to defend the detainee any moment. It is common knowledge that the police are not interested in having lawyers assisting detainees right from the moment of arrest. They believe that presence of the lawyer complicates the process of obtaining confession that is still regarded as "the queen of evidence" in Uzbekistan. All too frequently obtained through deception, threats, or torture, confession usually serves as the basis on which the prosecution builds the case. Economic state of affairs does not make things any easier: a lot of detainees cannot afford a lawyer and have to do without one.

Whenever the detainee's family cannot afford a lawyer, the ones provided within the framework of the ABA/CEELI project worked the first three days free. This was essentially the first opportunity for every detainee to have professional assistance. The project was carried out with help from the Soros Foundation in Tashkent and with help from the ABA/CEELI in the Ferghana Valley and Karakalpakstan.

The relationship between the United States and Islam Karimov's regime soured last year, and the Uzbek government began viewing ABA/CEELI with its activities as a potential threat. What happened afterwards followed the standard pattern of dealing with foreign non-government organizations in Uzbekistan that made them history in the last eighteen months or so: examination of activities, discovery of "violations" followed by the request from the Justice Ministry to close the non-government organization in question, a formal trial, and the sentence.

This is what happened to the ABA/CEELI mission in Uzbekistan. The Justice Ministry demanded it closed citing numerous violations of the acting legislation exposed in the course of examination of the activities.

Russian INTERFAX correspondent quoted a spokesman for the Justice Ministry as saying in the courtroom that activities of the ABA/CEELI mission did not concur with the program tasks specified in its charter. ABA/CEELI mission was blamed for assistance to non-registered organizations, establishment and support of local non-government organizations, failure to provide the requested documents confirming the use of financial and material assets, and legal assistance to the structures denied official registration.

INTERFAX refers to a source in the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan who said that the trial had established transaction of considerable sums from the ABA/CEELI mission to bank accounts of some law firms and non-government organizations. Transactions were thus made to the bank accounts of VERSARI, a law firm ABA/CEELI mission itself had established in the first place. [Vitaly Krasilovsky who defended Sunny Coalition leader Sandzhar Umarov is VERSARI director and co-founder - Ferghana.Ru news agency.] "The lawyer denied it categorically but Carnduff admitted the fact," INTERFAX quoted the source as saying.

Krasilovsky in his turn claims that all of that does not have anything to do with the actual state of affairs. VERSARI he established with his wife was founded in 2001 when he did not maintain any contacts with ABA/CEELI yet. Krasilovsky and ABA/CEELI mission became partners in October 2005, when they signed a donation treaty. Sums were donated to VERSARI whose three lawyers worked with the population free of charge. It was not even a grant as such, it was an official treaty which specified how many cases lawyers of the company were supposed to see through with this money. The money was transacted openly, via banks, everything was absolutely transparent and legal.

According to Krasilovsky, the trial was arranged in such a haste that not a single witness for the defense (himself included) was invited to the proceedings. Only the prosecutor, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry, G. Orlov who represented the ABA/CEELI, and Carnduff with her thoroughly inadequate Russian addressed the trial.

Krasilovsky assumes that Carnduff could be asked if there was a treaty between VERSARI and ABA/CEELI mission, and says that she would have confirmed its existence because no other money was ever transacted to his law firm. He is particularly nettled by reports of Russian news agencies claiming that "the lawyer denied everything at first" without giving the lawyer's name.

"Who could they mean? Me?" Krasilovsky said. "How could I deny anything when I was not even present regardless of the fact that the documents the Justice Ministry had forwarded to the court identified me by name? They were in such a haste that they jotted down the following, "S. Krasilovsky headed a law clinic." The court had to correct them, "There is no one by name of S. Krasilovsky and besides, he heads a law firm." As I see it, all of that is taking place because of my professional activities - defense of Urlayeva [a prominent human rights activist - Ferghana.Ru news agency] and Umarov. I'm being punished on orders from the powers-that-be for my professional activities. That's the only possible explanation."

The ABA/CEELI mission joined the club of other international non-government organizations closed in Uzbekistan in the last eighteen months. The authorities closed missions of the Soros Foundation (Open Society Institute), Internews Network, IWPR, IREX, RL/RFE, Freedom House, Eurasia Foundation, office of the UN High Commissar for Refugees, and most local non-government organizations.