Uzbekistan: Appeal Court Left Dilmurad Sayid’s Sentence Unchanged
Consideration of an appeal against the sentence passed on the case of independent journalist and human rights advocate from Tashkent Dilmurad Sayid was held at Samarkand city criminal court on September 11th. Having heard the arguments the court left the sentence of 12,5 years of imprisonment effective.
Having received the appellate court ruling, the condemned journalist’s public defender Ruhiddin Kamilov now intends to appeal to Samarkand Regional Criminal Court to consider Sayid’s case by supervisory procedures. If this instance will also leave the sentence unchanged, the defense plans to appeal against it to the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile Ferghana.ru has already reported that Dilmurad Sayid has suffered of tuberculosis over the last several years. His health has drastically deteriorated since the sentence was pronounced at the Taylak district court of Samarkand Region. “He has grown very thin. He does need urgent treatment” – says Kamilov.
Dilmurad Sayid was arrested in Tashkent this February and was charged with “Extortion” and “Fabrication and forgery of documents, stamps, and forms, and their sale or use”. However the journalist denied all accusations and his guilt was not established during the trial.
According to Dilmurad’s relatives the investigators made it clear in private conversations that his case was ordered from the “top” and the criminal case against him would result in custody anyway.
Prior to detention, Dilmurad Sayid focused on investigation of human rights violations and was an activist of Tashkent Regional Office of the human rights organization “Ezgulik”. During the period from 2007 to 2008 he was a member of the human rights Fast Response Group for Torture Prevention in Uzbekistan and cooperated with the human rights web-site “Voice of Freedom”.
