150 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 Elena Urlaeva: Earlier at the beginning of January 2007, human rights activist Elena Urlaeva had also been assaulted by four unknown women who beat her and took her bag outside the Mirzo-Ulugbek District Court for Civil Cases in Tashkent. The human rights activist claimed that the four women were plainclothes law enforcement officers and that the assault was meant to intimidate her and force her to stop investigating human rights violations by law enforcement officers. An official investigation into the assault alleged that Elena Urlaeva was attacked by relatives of convicted prisoners who were reportedly disgruntled that she had accepted money from them to defend their relatives, but had not acted on their cases. Elena Urlaeva denied that she had accepted money from relatives of prisoners in exchange for obtaining their release. On 9 March 2007, Elena Urlaeva wrote an open letter to Hina Jilani, the United Nations Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders describing how the authorities had prevented human rights activists from organizing a nationwide peaceful protest action for International Women’s Day on 8 March. Human rights and women’s rights activists had planned to hold demonstrations in several cities throughout Uzbekistan calling for the release of fellow women human rights activists Mutabar Tadzhibaeva, Umida Niazova and Gulbahor Turaeva. Participants in the meetings were asked to wear white or at least one white garment. Local authorities had been informed of the planned demonstrations in advance. However, law enforcement officers prevented all but one of the human rights activists from making their way to the designated meeting place in the centre of Tashkent. Most were either detained in the street and taken to local police stations or put under house arrest for the duration of 8 March. Elena Urlaeva, who managed to get to the designated meeting place in Tashkent, was reportedly assaulted by officers from the Amnesty International Tashkent City Department of Internal Affairs and beaten with a truncheon by one officer while another one reportedly tore off the white scarf she was wearing. Representatives of international organizations and media who had gathered to monitor the planned demonstration came to the help of Elena Urlaeva and reportedly prevented the officers from detaining her. Convictions and detentions of human rights defenders Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov Prominent human rights defender, Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov, was sentenced to seven years in prison by a court in Tashkent on 5 January 2006, after a closed trial. It was not clear when or to which prison he was transferred after his conviction. According to some reports, Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov was moved from a prison camp in Kharshi to Tashtiurma (Tashkent Prison) in the second half of 2006. These reports also stated that a new lawyer apparently appointed by the family was able to meet with him in prison in December 2006. In April 2007 diplomats were granted a first visit with Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov in Tashtiurma following repeated requests by the EU to be given access to him. He was reportedly very thin but appeared to be in reasonable health. It is not clear whether he had been brought to Tashtiurma from another place of detention for the visit or whether he continued to be detained in Tashtiurma. Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov’s son, Ilhom, was detained in May 2006, reportedly for having forged official documents and paper money bills. Supporters of the family and human rights activists claimed that his detention was the result of Ilhom Zainabitdinov’s meetings with contacts of his father, mainly human rights activists and independent journalists, following his father’s detention. He was allegedly also beaten following one of these meetings. According to the Uzbekistani authorities Ilhom Zainabitdinov had been forging paper money, Uzbekistani sum and Kyrgyzstani AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007