Additional Name(s): Усмон Дарвишов, Усман Дарвышов
Gender: Male
Perpetrator: Uzbekistan
Religion or Belief: Muslim – Sunni
Reports of Torture: Yes
Reports of Medical Neglect: No
Sentence: 16 Years' Imprisonment
Date of Detainment: February/18/2009
Current Status: Released
Religious Leader: No
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment
Reason for Persecution: Religious Activity Religious Belief
Nature of Charges: Banned Organization Extremism Hate Speech Treason & Sedition
Usman Darvyshov
Extra Bio Info:
Usman Darvyshov was imprisoned for his religious belief and activity.
On February 18, 2009, Uzbek security services detained Darvyshov, a boxing coach at an athletics school and resident of Namangan, after security services accused him of being a religious extremist. He was initially charged with “petty hooliganism” and sentenced him to 15 days’ administrative arrest. Darvyshov was reportedly tortured into confessing.
On an unspecified date, Darvyshov was charged with “incitement of ethnic, racial, or religious hatred” (Art. 156 UCC), “attempts to overthrow the constitutional order” (Art. 159 UCC), “organizing a criminal group” (Art. 242 UCC), and "creation, management, and participation in religious extremist, separatist, fundamentalist, or other banned organizations" (Art. 244-2 UCC).
On an unspecified date, Darvyshov was reportedly sentenced to 16 years in prison following a closed trial that lacked due process.
In 2018, Darvyshov was transferred to an open-air prison resettlement colony after serving nine years in a Qarshi prison.
In September 2022, it was reported that Darvyshov had been released.
Publicly Available Information:
Oct 8, 2021
Saudi Arabia has made some reforms to select polices impacting religious freedom, including improvements to its textbooks. Nevertheless, there are still several deeply rooted issues that undermine the credibility of its claims to be undertaking serious reform: non-Muslim communities may not construct houses of worship; Shi’a Muslims in Saudi Arabia still face systematic discrimination; religious dissidents continue to languish in prison; and the guardianship system limits a woman’s ability to exercise her religious freedom.
It goes without saying that Saudi Arabia has a long way to go in terms of improving religious freedom conditions on the ground. USCIRF Supervisory Policy Analyst Scott Weiner joins us today to highlight the areas in which they have made reforms, and elaborate on the conditions as they currently stand.
Read USCIRF’s latest Country Update on Saudi Arabia
Learn more about religious prisoner of conscience Raif Badawi mentioned in this episode.
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Oct 13
Oct 13th 2:00pm
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Oct 13th 3:00pm
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
USCIRF Conversation: New Report on Uzbekistan’s Religious Prisoners
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Virtual Event
Please join the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for a virtual event discussing the findings of USCIRF’s new report, Uzbekistan's Religious and Political Prisoners: Addressing a Legacy of Repression. The report documents credible evidence that the Uzbek government continues to imprison over 2,000 peaceful religious believers. It also highlights the personal cases of 81 individuals, many of whom were subject to torture and other forms of abuse.
Uzbekistan has some of the most repressive laws on religious practice anywhere in the world. Since 2016, the Uzbek government has initiated a series of reforms, including the release of certain categories of religious and political prisoners. Nevertheless, the government has yet to provide the identities of those released or provide any information about those individuals that remain incarcerated.
USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza and Vice Chair Nury Turkel will be joined by the author of the report, Steve Swerdlow, Associate Professor of the Practice of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California and former Senior Central Asia Researcher at Human Rights Watch, for this discussion. The event will be moderated by USCIRF Director of Outreach and Policy Dwight Bashir and will include Q&A for attendees.
Panelists
- Nadine Maenza, Chair, USCIRF
- Nury Turkel, Vice Chair, USCIRF
- Steve Swerdlow, Esq., Associate Professor, University of Southern California
- Dwight Bashir, Director of Outreach and Policy, USCIRF
This virtual event is open to the public and media. The video recording will be posted on the Commission website. For any additional questions, please contact [email protected].