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Islom Kholboyev, a writer and opposition activist from Uzbekistan, said that the country’s law enforcement agencies arrested his son Jamol Kholboyev in Tashkent on August 18. Even a lawyer is not allowed to see him.
The writer himself lives in Turkey. Islom Kholboyev fears that his son is being tortured. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan only confirmed the fact of the arrest of 32-year-old Jamol Kholboyev, noting that he was detained “without breaking the law.” Islom Kholboyev, 60, connects the arrest of his son with the publication in Turkey of his book, in which he wrote about torture in the prisons of Uzbekistan. informs Radio Liberty.
In the late 1980s, journalist Kholboyev participated in the creation of the opposition movement Birlik and the Erk party. At the origins of these organizations was the poet Muhammad Salih, who became the main rival of Islam Karimov in the first presidential elections in 1991. After the Karimov regime intensified its repression of the opposition, Islom Kholboyev left politics for business. In 2007 he was arrested and sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, found guilty under Art. 168 (fraud) of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan. Kholboyev himself pleaded not guilty.
The convict spent 1.5 years behind bars, and after his release, Holboev began to describe what he saw in prisons in his books, which he began to publish after moving to Turkey in 2014. “I have written as many as five books about torture in the prisons of Islam Karimov. Recently my novel titled Tuzok (Trap) was published in Turkey. After that, the pressure began. The State Security Service of Uzbekistan tried to get me extradited from Turkey, ”says Islom Holboev.
After the death of Islam Karimov in 2016, Shavkat Mirziyoyev received the presidency. According to human rights organizations, in recent years, his government has taken a number of measures to prevent torture in detention centers. However, prisoners continue to be tortured and killed. Over the past two years, Uzbek Interior Ministry officials have been found guilty of the deaths of at least three detainees.
Jamol Holboyev lived in Turkey with his father and his family. However, in early August, he returned to Uzbekistan to change his passport. “The day before his return to Turkey, on August 18, at 6 o’clock in the morning, officers of the Interior Ministry’s counter-terrorism department took my son away from his rented apartment, which is located in the Sergeli district of Tashkent,” Islom Holboyev said.
The writer claims that Uzbek investigators are trying to put pressure on him through his son. Over the past three days, Jamol has called his family twice. “Tell your father not to write any criticism in WhatsApp and Telegram messengers,” the arrested man said in a conversation with his sister. On another occasion, Jamol spoke with his younger brother and asked him to tell his father that he “did not write anything on social networks.”
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