My Brother’s 16-Year Sentence Was Not Enough for Uzbekistan. Now They Want Him to Disappear. |
The Debate | Opinion | Central Asia
My Brother’s 16-Year Sentence Was Not Enough for Uzbekistan. Now They Want Him to Disappear.
Dauletmurat Tajimuratov was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2023. Last week 2.5 years were added to his sentence.
My name is Renat Tajimuratov. I never sought the spotlight or wanted to speak publicly. But I cannot stay silent while my brother, Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, is being slowly destroyed in prison.
Four years ago, the government of Uzbekistan took my older brother from our family and sentenced him to 16 years in prison. His “crime” was being a brave activist and a selfless defender of Karakalpakstan – our homeland, a sovereign republic within Uzbekistan, with our own language, culture, history, and identity. In 2022, when the government considered stripping our home of its sovereignty, ensured in the Constitution of Uzbekistan, and its future through a proposed constitutional reform, Dauletmurat submitted an official request for a peaceful protest.
That attempt to exercise his freedom of assembly made him a target – and ultimately led to his arrest.
Uzbekistan is an authoritarian country, where the courts are tightly controlled. My brother was denied justice from the start, then locked behind bars.
Now, four years later, the authorities are doing everything they can to ensure that my brother never sees freedom again. For years, he was tortured, humiliated, and deliberately provoked – his honor and dignity publicly attacked before other prisoners and colony staff. Then just last week, the state used his attempts to defend himself as a pretext to add another two-and-a-half years to his sentence under Article 220 of Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code, for “actions disorganizing the work of a penal institution.” Now they are preparing to send him to an even harsher colony.
A few months ago, in February 2026, Dauletmurat called me from prison. “Tell Mother not to worry,” he said. He knew she would be distressed now that Uzbekistan had opened a new criminal case against him, treating his attempt to stand up for his rights as a crime.
Dauletmurat is a journalist and a lawyer. Even in prison, he has remained true to both callings: filing complaints and demanding the basic rights to rest, to read, and to be treated as a human being. For this, he was dragged barefoot, beaten, publicly humiliated in front of hundreds of prisoners and staff, and called an “enemy of the people.” He has been punished for demanding justice and human dignity, rather than disappearing quietly inside the prison system.
My brother is a fearless champion for justice, but he is also a kind soul. He once shared tea with another prisoner. For that simple act, he was punished and denied a visit with our family. Other prisoners are warned not to speak to him. Those who do are punished, too.
Despite the consequences, Dauletmurat is relentless.........