Authorities in Kashkadarya Region must stop legal proceedings against human rights activist Gulshan Karayeva as driving people to despair threatens the country with another “Andijan” tragedy.

Less than 24 hours are left until a protest action in the centre of the town of Karshi, which human rights activist Gulshan Karayeva and her relatives are impelled to hold by Kashkadarya Region authorities.

The Karshi town court is already considering criminal cases opened against Gulshan Karayeva, her brother Sanjar and sister-in-law Zilola Pulatova and judicial officers have been summoning the human rights defender’s relatives to the court for two days.

On 1 December, Gulshan Karayeva, Zilola Pulatova and their 100-year-old grandmother, Bibsulov Alimardonova, are planning to hold a picket outside the regional administration office in Karshi.

Reduced to despair, Gulshan Karayeva has bought vinegar and petrol after she decided to commit an act of violence against herself, hoping this will protect her brother and his wife from legal prosecutions.

By signing this petition, I call on authorities in Uzbekistan to stop persecutions and humiliations against Gulshan Karayeva and her relatives.

I urge authorities to understand that they should not instigate new popular protest actions. The country will not withstand another “Andijan”.

Uzbekistan must stop being a “banana republic” where a daughter of the president lives in luxury, dances and sings while other women desperately commit acts of violence against themselves as a last resort to express protest.

I defend Gulshan.

To sign the petition in defence of Gulshan Karayeva and her relatives, go to this link

The Real Union of Journalists of Uzbekistan - Uznews.net