Uzbekistan: Journalist Forcibly ‘Disappeared’

(New York, September 24, 2013) – Uzbek authorities should immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of Sergei Naumov, an independent journalist who disappeared after being detained by the authorities on September 21, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should afford him full due process rights if he is in detention. The case of Sergei Naumov, who was last heard from in police custody on September 21, highlights the Uzbek government’s continuing crackdown on independent journalists and peaceful civil society activists, and its attempts to stifle independent monitoring.
“The brutal practice of ‘disappearing’ government critics is a terrible blight on Uzbekistan’s already abysmal human rights record,” said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The enforced disappearance of an independent journalist is going to cause the criticism to swell, not to stop.”
For more information: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/27/uzbekistan-journalist-forcibly-disappeared