Karshi-based human rights activist Gulshan Karayeva is thankful to everyone who signed a petition in her defence, which has given her hope that legal proceedings against her will be stopped, she has said.

“As if I flew in the sky,” said Gulshan Karayeva, the head of the Kashkadarya Region branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) delighted with the campaign in her defence.

According to her, she was moved that many people responded to her problems by signing a petition and speaking in her defence, and by how experts of the Shoot Me society, which has given new strength to her.

Karayeva and her relatives, including her centenarian grandmother, Bibisulov Alimardonova, had planned to hold a protest action against legal

As if I flew in the sky”"

Gulshan Karayeva about a campaign in her defence

proceedings against her family outside the Kashkadarya Region administration on 1 December.

The Karayev family were driven to such a state after Kashkadarya authorities’ humiliation of the family since May this year that they were ready to resort to extreme measures, even to commit self-immolation.

In revenge for Karayeva’s human rights activity, police in the town of Karshi opened criminal cases against her, her brother and his wife. The cases have been sent to the Karshi town court, which has been sending the Karayevs orders to appear in the trial.

Since 30 November, a day before the scheduled protest action, Gulshan said, a group of policemen were patrolling around their house in Karshi.

On 1 December, policemen personally accompanied Gulshan to a postal office from where she sent a letter to the town court requesting to stop considering her and her relatives cases for a lack of body of crime.

But her grandmother still wanted to hold a picket fearing that their letters would not be sufficient, Gulshan said

“But we had managed to pass not more than 100 metres when police turned us back near the regional court house. They gave a lift to my grandmother in a Tico car and bought a snack for her,” Gulshan told Uznews.net.

The human rights activist hopes that local authorities will acknowledge that criminal prosecution against her family was fabricated completely.

Today, 3 December, according to Gulshan, no-one bothered her and she has not received any phone calls from the court. She said this might mean that they will leave her and her relatives alone after all.

A total of 123 people have already signed the petition in support of Gulshan Karayeva.

Uznews.net