Today, April 19, in Sergeliyskiy regional court of Tashkent there should have started a trial on Umida Niyazova’s case, the journalist and human rights activist, who was arrested several months ago and accused of a number of crimes by Uzbekistan authorities.

By 11 o'clock fifty people approximately gathered next to the court’s building – Niyazova’s relatives, journalists, human rights activists, representatives of foreign embassies and the international organizations, and also special agents, dressed in civil clothes. Umida Niyazova herself was delivered to the court an hour beforehand.

Though the trial did not start. After an hour’s expectation the indictee’s lawyer Tatyana Davidova came out to the assembly and informed that the session was postponed for uncertain time with no explanation given.

Similar practice is rather common for Uzbekistan. In order to prevent undesirable witnesses’ presence on the session, who could later sound the fact, that the court fulfilled an order to imprison a non-grata person, hearings are quite often moved to periphery or infinitely postponed, until only a bench of people, wishing to attend the hearings, remain.

We shall remind, Umida Niyazova is charged with illegal border crossing, smuggling, manufacturing or distribution of subversive materials with the help of financial or other aid, received from religious organizations and also from foreign states, organizations and citizens. As Human Rights Watch stated, the aggregate charge could carry up to 10 years in prison for Umida Niyazova.