Uzbekistan: Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov's thank-you letter -
“Dear friends from across the world!”
Posted: July 21, 2008
After his release from prison in Uzbekistan, human rights defender Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov wrote a letter thanking everyone in the world who had stood by him. © Private
Human rights defender Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov was released in Uzbekistan on February 4, 2008, under a presidential amnesty.
He had been serving a seven-year sentence, handed down in January 2006 after a secret trial.
Before his imprisonment, Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov had been in the town of Andizhan monitoring protests which escalated on May 12-13, 2005.
During the information blockade that engulfed Uzbekistan in the aftermath of the protests, messages from Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov were forwarded to the leading world news agencies, TV channels, radio stations and newspapers.
Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov's peaceful human rights work led to him being charged with libel, “information dissemination fomenting the panic” and “terrorism”. After his recent release, he wrote a letter to everyone who had stood alongside him.
Below is the thank-you letter that Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov sent to his supporters around the world.
Dear friends from across the world!
Exactly three years ago, on May 21, 2005, I was arrested in Andizhan on charges of distributing misinformation against the honour of certain persons, creating panic and supporting religious terrorist organizations which attempted to seize power.
On January 5, 2006, a court sentenced me to seven years in prison. However, international human rights organizations...having recognized me as a prisoner of conscience, persistently urged the Uzbek government to set me free. As a result, I was released on February 2 this year in line with an amnesty announced in our country every year...I myself have been in prison for two years and eight months.
More than half of this term I spent while being in a remand centre and while being transferred from one place to another, in other words, in maximum isolation from the outside world. With the exception of this fact, I can say that officials on all levels behaved themselves quite correctly towards me.
Hundreds of letters supporting me, on the initiative of international organizations and mainly Amnesty International, arrived at my house from across the world during the time when I was in prison. I did not have the opportunity to read and to answer these letters when I was in prison. Now, I do not see another way than publishing this letter of appeal since there are so many letters and I cannot answer them separately yet.
I received 9620 letters, postcards, drawings, photographs and messages from dozens of countries...With these letters I also received photographs of 129 people...I also received signed petitions expressing solidarity with me on 59 folded cards, A4 and A3 leaflets and one poster with 1503 signatures. In the future I will find a way (either via the Internet, or via a printed publication) to reply to all the letters which had a return address.
Now, I want to express my deepest gratitude to all the authors of all the messages. I wish you peace and happiness. I also think of you and you are always in my thoughts!
With love, Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov