Uzbekistan: jailed entrepreneur keeps faith in the system
TASHKENT (TCA) — Harassment of private entrepreneurs by corrupt law-enforcement officials is widespread in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, and Uzbekistan is no exception. With reforms announced by the new Uzbek head of state, there is a hope that that practice will stop. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by EurasiaNet.org: A scroll through Olim Sulaimanov’s Facebook page suggests nothing of a man seeking to buck the system in Uzbekistan. One post from early January features a screenshot of the televised New Year’s Eve address by the president accompanied by wholehearted messages of support from Sulaimanov. But scattered among the cheerleading for the government are reminders that the businessman recently emerged from his second stretch of prison time in the space of seven years. “If two times they tried to break a man, but he got back up each time, that shows he has character,” reads one message from December 3. Sulaimanov blames his troubles with the law on an out-of-control and unaccountable justice system. His one hope is to speak with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev directly so that he might explain what he and fellow entrepreneurs in Uzbekistan must endure just to keep their head above water. Sulaimanov arrived for an interview with EurasiaNet.org holding folders bulging with papers documenting his legal troubles. Without waiting for questions, he began animatedly explaining how he had been unjustly imprisoned. “I am looking for justice and I want to show that they put me behind bars on the basis of false testimonies,” said Sulaimanov, an emotional and perennially optimistic 53-year-old. His first run-in with the authorities came in 2010, when Sulaimanov says he refused to give a $20,000 bribe to an official in the General Prosecutor’s Office. As a result, his companies were impounded and he faced criminal charges on grounds of financial misdemeanors. A sustained letter-writing campaign had no discernible effect. In August 2011, he emerged undaunted from a 12-month stay in prison. “My sense of fear disappeared and I understood that if you are right, you should fight to the very end,” he told EurasiaNet.org. Sulaimanov restarted his three companies, which dealt in construction, exporting fruit and vegetables, and manufacturing industrial cleaning materials. Things went smoothly for a few years, but trouble returned in the spring of 2016. According to his account of events, three officials from the Tashkent prosecutor’s office turned up at his house one day in April demanding he transfer 203 million sum (around $67,000 dollars at the official rate) to a designated bank account, and make a $30,000 cash payment. After putting up considerable resistance, Sulaimanov said he paid the former amount, but refused to relent on the latter. Before long, his companies were once again impounded and his bank accounts frozen. And then suddenly, history intervened and appeared to present a slender lifeline. Islam Karimov, the country’s veteran iron-fisted president, died in September 2016. Soon after taking Karimov’s place, Mirziyoyev began making remarks that were music to the ears of...
