Imprisoned human rights activist Ihtiyor Hamroyev called his father Bahtiyor Hamroyev (Chairman of the Jizak regional organization of the Uzbek Society for Human Rights) on the phone to say that he had been coerced into giving false testimony in front of a videocam. Hamroyev was forced to denounce the previous reports that he had been assaulted and battered in the colony on December 26, 2005.

Hamroyev told his father that the photo session was arranged by the prosecutor's office and colony administration on orders from their superiors. The record will probably be used to placate Uzbek and French human rights activists who claim that Hamroyev is tortured.

Hamroyev's stomach ulcer compelled him to ask to see a doctor on December 25. Instead of the doctor, however, he got a visit from security and beaten the following day. He was so bad after it that the colony administration was forced to hospitalize the human rights activist.

From our folders:

Ihtiyor Hamroyev was born on May 21, 1985. He is a citizen of Uzbekistan, activist of the Jizak regional organization of the Uzbek Society for Human Rights. Hamroyev is serving his sentence in Colony 64/78 in the settlement of Chimkurgan, Zafarabad district, Jizak region (former Collective Farm No 24). On September 25, 2006, the Jizak Municipal Court sentenced Hamroyev to 3 years imprisonment under Article 277.2.d of the Criminal Code (hooliganism) which was more than what the prosecution had demanded.

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