Report on Uzbekistan's Religious and Political Prisoners

The report estimates that over 2,000 individuals remain imprisoned by the Uzbekistan government for peacefully practicing their religious beliefs and documents the cases of 81 specific prisoners, many of whom are serving some of the longest politically-motivated jail sentences in the world. It presents the history of religious repression in Uzbekistan over the past three decades from the presidency of Islam Karimov to today; the legal provisions employed by the Uzbek government to detain peaceful religious practitioners, often on vague charges of “extremism”; Uzbekistan’s extensive prison infrastructure; the authorities’ use of torture; and other forms of abuse.