Jamshid Karimov

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Jamshid Karimov (born in 1967) is a prominent journalist in Uzbekistan. His uncle is current President Islom Karimov. His whereabouts are unknown, but he was last seen in Jizzakh on 12 September 2006 before he went to visit his mother in a hospital.^[1]

Uzbek government officials refuse to comment on Karimov's disappearance. Friends and relatives say his arrest was motivated by his criticism of the Karimov administration.^[1]

According to Radio Free Europe, in 2004, Karimov was "beaten up on the streets of Jizzakh... by unidentified assailants."^[2]

[edit] Family

His father, Arsalan, died in a car crash in 1989. His mother, Margarita, told Radio Free Europe's Uzbek Service, that at one point Karimov visited her "at the hospital and the director made a scene. Jamshid was worrying more and more of late. He was telling me: 'Things will blow up, they will put handcuffs on me.' 'You did nothing wrong.' I was telling him. 'You criticized the authorities a little bit, so what? Don't worry, things will settle down.' But things didn't settle down, quite the contrary. They took everything from us, even the money. Now I live in poverty."^[1] According to Reporters Without Borders, Karimov's friends discovered he had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Samarkand, but his wife is not allowed to visit him. Loubet del Bayle of RWB said, "It is unacceptable that the authorities do not tell the families why they were arrested and their current condition."^[3]

[edit] Disappearance

Karimov went to visit his mother on 12 September. His brother Alisher said he "never returned home." On 14 September Ulugbek Khaidarov, Karimov's friend and fellow journalist, was arrested in Jizzakh on charges of extortion. Khaidarov's sister Nortoji said her brother was framed.^[1]

On 20 September 2006, Marat Khalturdiev, the head of the National Security Service's regional branch, described Karimov's disappearance as "a private affair" and said nothing more. Uznews.net quoted "sources close to Jamshid Karimov's family" on 25 September as saying the journalist had reportedly been sent to a psychiatric hospital in Samarkand. Elin Jonsson, a freelance Swedish journalist who specializes in Central Asian affairs, who knew both Karimov and Khaidarovs, said that earlier in the year they had told her they were worried about their safety, and that they were going to try and get a visa for Sweden. She said the last time she had "received a letter from them was in late July. I think it was July 28. They were telling me they had received information that Ulugbek would be arrested and that Jamshid would be sent to a psychiatric hospital, or a similar kind of closed institution. [Jamshid and Ulugbek] were almost the last remaining free journalists working in Uzbekistan. They have been writing openly about things they witnessed following the Andijon events. They both critically reported on what the governor of Jizzakh said [to justify] the Andijon [crackdown]. They received threats. They were told to stop writing. They were even offered money and asked to switch sides, to write more 'positive' articles. But they refused." Both men were reporting for ferghana.ru website and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.^[1]

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the government to release Karimov and Khaidarov immediately and end harassment of their families. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement on 26 September, "We're shocked at the brutal methods used against these two journalists, including psychiatric detention, a hallmark of Soviet repression. If President Karimov is treating his own nephew in this manner, it's hard to imagine how others might fare."^[1]