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Reading 9. Amnesty International, Report Uzbekistan
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Chapter II, Reading 9 Torture and Sexuality One of the populations most vulnerable to torture are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBn people. Given that torture and discrimination go hand in hand and that the LGBT community often lacks significant political power, in part because in many areas of the world it is still dangerous not to remain closeted, this is not surprising. Moreover, LGBT activists who do claim power are often themselves targeted for persecution, as was a Ugandan lesbian whom Amnesty International pseudonymously called "Christine" in publicizing the fact that she had been stripped naked, beaten, and raped after being taken into custody simply for organizing a gay and lesbian human rights group.41 In this reading from another Amnesty report (this one on Uzbekistan), human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov's alleged sexual orientation was employed as a means of punishing him for speaking out on a range of human rights violations in that country. In june 2004, following an international campaign on his behalf, Sharipov was released from prison but advised to leave the country. A few months later he was granted political asylum in the United States. According to Article 120 of the Uzbekistan Criminal Code, "the satisfaction ofa sexual urge by a man with a man without violence" is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. In May 2003, Ruslan Sharipov, then a twenty-five-year-oldjournalistwith the Russian news agency PRIMA and leader of the human rights group Civic Assistance, was arrested by police in Tashkent and charged with homosexuality. He was also later charged under Article 127 (encouraging minors to commit antisocial behavior) and Article 128 (having sexual relations with minors). Police interrogating him confronted Sharipov about several articles he had written on the subject ofhuman rights violations in Uzbekistan, shouting at him and threatening him with rape and suffocation. Sharipov was found guilty of all the charges against him and was sentenced to five and half years in prison. In letters from prison Sharipov insisted that the case had been fabricated in order to punish him for his human rights activities. Sharipov stated that he had been tortured into changing his plea to guilty. "I was injected with unidentified substances and I was told that I was being infected with HIVvirus. They put bags and a gas mask over my head and made me write a suicide note. Unidentified substances were sprayed 96 Chapter II into my throat, making me feel as if I was suffocating, while they continued to torture me with electric shock to the ears and other parts of the body. It was mostly the interior ministry's anti-terrorism department that did the torturing. I remember how Radjab Kadirov, who is in charge of all prisons and camps and who is the interior minister's first assistant, told me that I should end all activity and give up any hope ofgetting U.S. help. 'Look how the U.S. cooperates with us in the war against terrorism,' Kadirov said. 'Even our anti-terrorism department which is in charge of your case is financed by them. So don't expect their help.' They also told me that if I did not officially say I did not want my defense team and my mother to be present in court, both my defense team and relatives would be in danger. My public defender ended up being attacked and beaten and was hospitalized with serious injuries." ...