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By Country / Uzbekistan

Uzbek Human Rights Activist Arrested

January 17, 2007

Gulbahor Turaeva (file photo) (fergana.ru)

January 17, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Uzbekistan's law enforcement agencies have arrested Gulbahor Turaeva, a physician and rights activists from Andijon.

Turaeva's husband, Farit Angildin, told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service today his wife was detained late last week.

"It happened on [January 14] at the regional customs office," he said. "On the morning of [January 16] they took her to the National Security Service. They [called me], said everything would be sorted out in a week's time and that they will call me back."

The ferghana.ru news agency reports that Turaeva was detained while returning home from Osh, in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. It says she was found in possession of banned opposition publications.

The agency quotes an unidentified security official as saying Turaeva was sent to Andijon for questioning and that she faces criminal charges for attempting to smuggle in printed material deemed dangerous to Uzbekistan's "constitutional order."

Turaeva was one of the few Andijon residents who reported on the May 2005 bloody military crackdown to Western media.

(with material from ferghana.ru)