A leading Human Rights activist in Uzbekistan has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital in an echo of soviet style practices after distributing anti-government leaflets which prosecutors claimed insulted the countrys emblem.
Elena Urlayeva had earlier criticised President islam Karimov for the Andijan massacre in May when government troops allegedly shot hundreds of innocent protestors.
Mrs Urlayeva, who is a member of the opposition free peasants party, was arrested in the capital, Tashkent, on Saturday and incacerated in the mental health ward of a city hospital.
Talib Yukabuv, chairman of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, said Mrs Urlayeva had been detained in the past and forcibly injected with drugs. "It is because she is such a persistant critic who works 24 hours a day to help the people" he said.
Yesterday the Helsinki federation for Human Rights called for her immediate release.
Mrs Urlayeva, who is a member of the opposition free peasants party, was arrested in the capital, Tashkent, on Saturday and incacerated in the mental health ward of a city hospital.
Talib Yukabuv, chairman of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, said Mrs Urlayeva had been detained in the past and forcibly injected with drugs. "It is because she is such a persistant critic who works 24 hours a day to help the people" he said.
Yesterday the Helsinki federation for Human Rights called for her immediate release.
