Watchdog

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says gay men in Uzbekistan face arbitrary detention, prosecution, and imprisonment and has called on the Central Asian nation's government to guarantee their rights and decriminalize same-sex sexual conduct.

In a statement issued on March 23, HRW said gay men in the former Soviet republic, a current member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, face "homophobia, threats, and extortion" and the criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct remains "a significant stain" on Tashkent’s record.

"Uzbekistan should decriminalize same-sex sexual conduct by repealing Article 120 of the criminal code and excluding any provisions criminalizing same-sex conduct from its new criminal code," the HRW statement said.

The rights watchdog also called on Tashkent to "investigate attacks and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, including threats made by law enforcement officers...and hold those responsible to account."

"Uzbekistan’s international partners should press Uzbekistan to decriminalize same-sex sexual conduct in keeping with its obligations to uphold key human rights standards," the HRW's statement said.

HRW emphasized that a draft of Uzbekistan's new Criminal Code, published on February 22, still addresses same-sex sexual conduct as a crime, as the legislation only changes the article's number from 120 to 154 and not the wording.

“Criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct is fundamentally incompatible with international human rights norms and keeping it on the books contributes to an environment of fear and hostility for LGBT people in Uzbekistan,” Hugh Williamson, director of the Europe and Central Asia division at HRW, said.

“If Uzbekistan wants to show the world it is serious about respecting human rights, parliament should decriminalize consensual same-sex conduct before it adopts a new Criminal Code.”

Uzbekistan and neighboring Turkmenistan are the last former Soviet republics where same-sex consensual sex conduct is officially a crime, but sexual minorities still face firmly entrenched social taboos across the region.

KYIV -- Police in Kyiv have launched a probe into protests by supporters of Serhiy Sternenko, the controversial former leader of a far-right Ukrainian paramilitary group who was sentenced to seven years in prison on robbery and illegal weapons charges last month in a high-profile abduction case.

The Kyiv police department said on March 21 that the investigations were being launched into hooliganism and the damage done to the building of the president's office by Sternenko's supporters the previous day.

According to the police statement, one of the protesters, an individual born in 1995 whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested for possessing an illegal weapon.

On March 20, hundreds of Sternenko's supporters rallied in front of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office with torches and fire-crackers demanding the immediate release of Sternenko and several other pro-Ukrainian activists.

During the rallies, the walls of the building were painted with graffiti while firecrackers and flash grenades were thrown into the building’s windows.

The president's office estimated damages caused by the protesters to the late-19th century building at 2 million hryvnyas ($71,500).

A court in Kyiv on February 23 found Sternenko, who once led the Right Sector group in the city of Odesa, guilty of kidnapping, robbery and the possession of an illegal weapon in a case involving the abduction of a local lawmaker in 2015.

The court at the time ruled that, due to the statute of limitations, Sternenko could not be sentenced for kidnapping. It did, however, sentence him to seven years in prison on the other two charges.

Sternenko is also a suspect in another high-profile case that has been challenged by his supporters for years.

He is accused of premeditated murder and of possessing an illegal-bladed weapon in the killing of a man almost three years ago.

Sternenko claims he acted in self-defense while being attacked by two men late in the evening on May 26, 2018.

As he fought off the attackers, suffering numerous head injuries and a cut to his arm in the process, Sternenko injured one of the assailants who later died in hospital.

Investigators say that, after Sternenko defended himself using his knife, the attackers fled the scene. But Sternenko, whose life and health were no longer in danger, then reportedly chased one of them and stabbed him several times, inflicting wounds that led to the man's death, investigators say.

The attack was the third against Sternenko in three months.