IV.
Right to Liberty and Freedom of Movement
of Human Rights Defenders
The free exercise of the right to liberty and freedom of movement was compromised
on a number of occasions. As regards human rights defenders, this included unjustified
prison sentences, administrative detention, detention in psychiatric institutions, bans
on travelling abroad, extradition, detention without access to a lawyer, and detention of
journalists for publishing classified reports in the public interest. The following sets out
key circumstances and challenges affecting defenders.
1.
Unjustified prison sentences. On occasion, prison sentences were passed on
human rights defenders following trials that gave rise to concerns as to whether
international fair-trial standards had been met. In one case, a defender who was
carrying books on human rights and books by members of the opposition was
arrested at the border, convicted, and sentenced to six years in prison − later
reduced to a three-year suspended sentence − for “attempting to overthrow
the constitutional system”, “slander”, and “producing and spreading materials
threatening public order”.98 Another human rights defender was sentenced
to two years in a prison colony for harming the dignity and honour of the
president and insulting and threatening a judge on the basis of a letter she had
written but that she never sent. The letter argued that the president should
undergo a psychiatric examination and called for a boycott of the presidential
elections.99 Another human rights defender was sentenced to a two-year
suspended sentence and four years’ probation for publishing calls for peace by
98 Case of Gulbahor Turayeva (Uzbekistan), FIDH/OMCT, contribution to the 2007 SHDM on
the “Promotion and Protection of Human Rights”, Vienna, 12-13 July 2007, p. 4; IHF, “Human Rights
Defenders at Risk”, contribution to the OSCE SHDM on the “Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights”, p. 5; cf. the case of Umida Niyazova (Uzbekistan), idem.
99 Case of Katsiaryna Sadouskaya (Belarus), “Human Rights in the OSCE Region”, op. cit., note 62,
p, 255.
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