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Alert

Independent journalist Ruslan Sharipov handed five-and-a-half-year jail sentence

(WAN/IFEX) - In a 15 August 2003 letter to President Islam Karimov, WAN and the World Editors Forum expressed their serious concern at the five-and-a-half-year jail sentence given to independent journalist Ruslan Sharipov.

According to reports, on 13 August a Tashkent court sentenced Sharipov, a journalist and human rights defender, to five and a half years in jail for sex offences. Sharipov was arrested on 26 May and charged with engaging in homosexual conduct. Police later brought additional charges of involving minors in "antisocial behaviour" and having sexual relations with minors.

WAN and the World Editors Forum are concerned by reports that Sharipov was tortured whilst in detention. Having maintained his innocence since his arrest, on 8 August Sharipov waived his right to counsel, declared his intention to plead guilty to all charges and asked that the only outside observer to the proceedings - his mother - be dismissed from the courtroom. Sharipov further offered to beg publicly for forgiveness and retracted all Internet news articles critical of the government that he had written from 2001 to 2003.