Uzbek journalist Dilmurod Sayid has sent a letter from prison in Navoiy describing torture and mistreatment, the Ozodlik radio reports.

A letter of independent journalist Dilmurod Sayid, who was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in 2009, is addressed to the chairman of the Tashkent Region branch of the Ezgulik (Mercy) human rights society, Abdurahmon Tashanov.

In the letter Sayid told about sophisticated means of torture and mistreatment. He also said his writings done in prison had been seized.

The letter with his request for help was delivered to the addressee on 8 March by his younger brother Obid.

Tashanov said that the letter, written on a crumpled page from

These days when not only correspondence with living people but also memories about the dead is banned, I regard the very existence as fantasy”"

Dilmurod Sayid

a school notebook was a testimony of torture and humiliation that accompanied the author in prison.

Sayid said that the prison administration had deprived him of an opportunity to keep his texts of his works and to inform public organisations about what was happening to prisoners.

“These days when not only correspondence with living people but also memories about the dead is banned, I regard the very existence as fantasy,” he wrote.

Tashanov is convinced that what is happening to Dilmurod Sayid is a gross violation of the Uzbek Criminal Code and other laws.

He asked the Main Directorate for Execution of Punishment of the Uzbek Interior Ministry to give assessment for violations against the journalist.

Well-known journalist and human rights activist Dilmurod Sayid was detained in Tashkent on 29 February 2009 on charges of extortion and forgery of documents, stamps and signatures.

On 30 July 2009 Samarkand Region’s Taylak District court found him guilty and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. The district court of appeal upheld the ruling on 11 September.

On 5 November 2009 his wife and little daughter died in a car crush on their way to see him in prison.

The press reported then that it was an accident not a plot by authorities.

A number of international organisations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, are continuing to appeal to Uzbek authorities to investigate the situation around the unjust conviction of Dilmurod Sayid and call for his release, Ozodlik said.

Uznews.net