Today, the Nukus City Court ruled to transfer Karakalpak activist Zhetkerbai Abdramanov from pre-trial detention to home imprisonment for 4 years and 7 months. This decision follows months of advocacy over his arbitrary detention and the conditions under which he was held.
In June 2022, Abdramanov was detained in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for distributing materials opposing proposed constitutional changes in Uzbekistan that aimed to abolish the sovereignty of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. He was collecting signatures from Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan against these amendments. For this actions in January 2024, Uzbek authorities issued an arrest warrant for Abdramanov, charging him under Article 159, Part 1 (public calls for violation of the unity of Uzbekistan’s territory) and Article 244-1, Part 3, Paragraph “a” (distribution of materials threatening public safety by prior conspiracy) of the Uzbek Criminal Code. On December 16, 2024, upon arriving in Moscow, Abdramanov was detained due to an international arrest warrant from Uzbekistan. However, Russian prosecutors released him after determining insufficient evidence for extradition. Despite this, on December 26, 2024, he was reportedly abducted at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow and unlawfully transferred to Uzbekistan, allegedly with the assistance of Russian law enforcement and the FSB.
Today’s court decision is a partial step forward. The ruling acknowledges the need to ease the conditions of his detention. However, the charges against him remain politically motivated and should be dropped in their entirety. Freedom for Eurasia reiterates that Zhetkerbai Abdramanov has been targeted solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. His case is emblematic of the broader campaign to silence dissenting voices in Karakalpakstan and throughout Uzbekistan.
While we welcome the decision to move him out of pre-trial detention, we emphasize that home imprisonment is still imprisonment. We therefore renew our call for the immediate and unconditional release of Zhetkerbai Abdramanov and all political prisoners in Uzbekistan.
We will continue to monitor his case closely and advocate for full accountability for the violations he has suffered.
