Police Detain South Korean Visitors & Uzbek Human Rights Leader

Civic Space Restrictions
Written By Cotton Campaign

Statement issued by the Press Center of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, October 2, 2013, Tashkent, Uzbekistan:

"On the Margins of Uzbekistan: Detained Foreigners

Today, October 2, 2013, in the cotton fields of Tashkent region police detained visiting Korean nationals and Elena Urlaeva, head of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan.

Urlaeva was showing the foreigners the high-school students picking cotton instead of studying.

The police officers of Yangibozor, Botirbke Mingbaev and Usmanov Elmurad, demanded the foreigners present their passports, but the foreigners did not respond.

Urlaeva immediately contacted journalists. Then, instead of proceeding with the arrest and detention at the local police station, the police took the foreigners and Urlaeva to the bus station and told them to go to the grape fields in Parkent city."

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