Paris court to debate whether Karimov is a dictator

Uznews.net � A court in Paris will begin hearings tomorrow into whether or not Uzbek President Islam Karimov is a dictator.

His daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillayeva, is suing the French rue-89.fr website for �30,000 for calling her father a dictator.

Exiled Uzbek human rights campaigners Mutabar Tajibayeva and Nadezhda Atayeva will give evidence at the trial.

Tajibayeva, head of the Fergana-based Fiery Hearts Club, who was imprisoned between 2005 and 2008 on falsified charges after exposing corruption, said she would tell the court about her trial and the torture and hysterectomy she was forced to undergo in prison.

�I am only one of thousands of victims of Karimov�s regime and I have an opportunity to state that the treatment

of its citizens and widespread lawlessness can happen only in a dictatorial country,� she told Uznews.net.

Uzbek political analyst Tashpulat Yuldashev, who has been granted asylum in the USA, said that the situation in Uzbekistan proved that one of the world�s most brutal dictatorships was ruling the country.

He also said Karimov has served three presidential terms in the last 22 years, even though the constitution prevents that.

�Karimov is an evil dictator of the modern world,� Yuldashev said. �He has deprived the Uzbek people of civil and political rights, imposed censorship and encouraged the repression of dissidents.�

Human Rights Watch�s Rachel Denber believes that the rue89.fr article qualifies as lawful comment, and that Karimov is using his daughter to fight the case against the publication. She said this lawsuit, which contradicts freedom of speech principles and European human rights standards, showed the nature of the Uzbek regime, which does not tolerate any criticism.

Denber believes the lawsuit will backfire against the Uzbek regime, damaging Karimov�s reputation further.

The trial will start in Paris tomorrow at 1300 local time.