OSCE/ODIHR report on Uzbekistan trials calls for verdicts on 15 Andijan defendants to be set aside

WARSAW, 24 April 2006 - In a report released today, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, raises concerns regarding violations of the right to a fair trial in Uzbekistan. The report is based on monitoring of the trials of 15 defendants in relation to events during May 2005 in Andijan.

The trials took place between September and November the same year.

From the observations that the ODIHR monitors were able to make, concrete concerns arise of possible violations of the right to a lawyer in pre-trial stages, the right to a competent and effective counsel and the right to a public trial. However, due to the lack of access to defendants, to defence lawyers and to case materials it is not possible to draw firm conclusions concerning many fair trial rights.

As the monitors were unable to talk to the defendants, it is also not possible to establish whether they were represented by lawyers of their choice, had regular access to their lawyers and to other visitors such as family members, had been informed promptly of the reasons for their arrest and of their right to legal counsel, or whether their rights during interrogation were upheld. Nor was it possible to confirm that they had not been coerced into making confessions.

In an earlier report on the events in Andijan, the ODIHR made a series of recommendations to the Uzbek authorities, most of which remain relevant. The trial monitoring report makes further recommendations relating to the trials.

First, it recommends that the verdicts on the 15 defendants be set aside, due to identified fair trial rights violations and serious misgivings about the overall fairness of the proceedings against the defendants. The ODIHR urges the Government of Uzbekistan to proceed to a retrial of the defendants subject to the findings of an independent impartial investigation.

The report calls on Uzbekistan's authorities to review, together with competent international institutions, all safeguards for fair trial in law as well as in practice, and in conformity with international standards, in order to address and rectify any identified shortcomings effectively.

It also calls on the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan to initiate a review into the conduct of the state-appointed lawyers in the trial and asks the authorities to grant access to persons convicted of crimes related to the Andijan events by international bodies competent to assess their conditions of detention.

An advance copy of the report has been shared with the Uzbek authorities, whose response is published together with the report. The ODIHR stands ready to assist the Chairman-in-Office and all other OSCE partners in following up on these recommendations.