Umida Akhmedova Found Guilty

Umida Ahmedova (center) waits for the verdict in front of the court building in Tashkent. Photo and caption: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

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Photographer Umida Akhmedova was found guilty of "damaging the spiritual values" of Uzbekistan and "slandering the nation," reports the BBC.

"I feel like I am the one being slandered," Akhmedova said.

After announcing the guilty verdict, the judge said the photographer would be "automatically pardoned under an amnesty," according to the BBC. She will appeal anyway.

The New York Times says the "case...has stirred outrage in artistic circles throughout the region."

And beyond.

Mike
(Thanks to Robert Howell)

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Featured Comment by imco: "Today a large group of well-known Russian photographers are going to picket Uzbek embassy in Moscow. I hope the same will happen in other countries. It's extremely important to speak out now."

Comments

[Bill Mitchell]

Disgusting.

[Paul Amyes]

I suppose she is lucky this is a country that routinely has journalists murdered

Trouble is that the government there can do whatever it wants as there will be no international condemnation because the country is seen as important in the "war on terror" . Both the US and Russian governments are courting the Uzbek government and are throwing money at the regime in the hope of maintaining a presence in the region.

To me it seems very flawed that in the fight to preserve democracy we allow our governments to support and bolster up some of the worst authoritarian regimes in the world.

[Ken Tanaka]

A stark reminder that the world remains well-stocked with primitive, insecure, totalitarian societies.

As for me, that's it. Good package deals or not, Uzbekistan is off my vacation list.

[Andreas]

Paul, I agree with you. Exept that I don't think any government fights to preserve democracy, this is always a legitimation for other purposes.

[AlunFoto]

Here is a list of Uzbek embassies and consulates around the world:
http://www.apartment.sk.uz/uzbekistan_embassies_and_consulates_travel_visa.htm

[charlie]

Holy smokes, welcome to the stone age.

[swr]

It's well worth checking out the writings of "Craig Murray," a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan.

He actually resigned his post in 2003 in protest of the fact that the British and US governments were propping up the Uzbek government.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/102409b.html

One of the most remarkable cases is that of Craig Murray, a 20-year veteran of the British Foreign Service whose career was destroyed after he was posted to Uzbekistan in August 2002 and began to complain about Western complicity in torture committed by the country’s totalitarian regime, which was valued for its brutal interrogation methods and its vast supplies of natural gas.

Murray soon faced misconduct charges that were leaked to London’s tabloid press before he was replaced as ambassador in October 2004, marking the end of what had been a promising career. Murray later spoke publicly about how the Bush administration and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government collaborated with Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov and his torturers.

[Dennis Allshouse]

I just checked out the NY Times article. You've got to read the quote from the 'experts'. It's not that the people live in the Middle Ages, it's the government that's living in the Middle Ages.

[misha]

Want to murder journalists? Hate civil rights? Want to rule by terror? Easy. Just sign the Coalition Of The Willing.

She's lucky she wasn't shot, or boiled alive.

[Rich]

Uzbekistan did more to hurt their global image by finding her guilty than any photograph, malign or not, could have ever accomplished. When free speech is trampled, voices are silenced, or people are imprisoned for disagreeing with their government, you can bet that history is creating yet another example to be used by future generations of oppression and fear of change. This case saddens me as a human being.

[Toe Tag]

What a travesty--that would be like Eisenhower trying to prosecute Robert Frank for publishing "The Americans." And getting released under a one-off amnesty is no relief. All she has to do is shoot some more pictures that the regime finds offensive, and it's into the back of the Black Maria for the trip downtown.

[Ludovic]

"Travesty" also is the first word that came to my mind.

Finding someone guilty and then pardoning them immediately is trying to have your cake and eat it too. It's gutless. Like they wanted to condemn her, but knew they it would be best if they didn't really.

To be sure, I'm not saying she shouldn't have been pardoned - I'm saying she shouldn't been condemned in the first place.