Amnesty International says nearly 200,000 people have signed a petition calling on Uzbek President Islam Karimov to immediately release a woman it calls a “prisoner of conscience.”
The signatures in support of 49-year-old Dilorom Abdukadirova were collected in 123 countries as part of the organization’s “Stop Torture” campaign, Amnesty International U.K. said in an October 20 statement.
Amnesty describes Abdukadirova as a vegetable seller and "prisoner of conscience" serving an 18-year prison sentence for participating in a protest for better economic conditions in the Central Asian nation.
She originally fled the country in 2005 after Uzbek forces fired on protesters in the town of Andijon, killing hundreds of people, according to witnesses, but was arrested in 2010 after returning to reunite with her family, Amnesty says.