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October 2, 2005
Uzbek dissident in psychiatric hospital
From WebIndia123.com
A woman arrested in Uzbekistan for distributing an anti-corruption cartoon says authorities want her to say she is mentally ill.
The BBC reports that Yelena Urlayeva is being held in Republican Psychiatric Hospital No. 2, a prison-like Stalinist relic outside Tashkent. A reporter was able to talk to her briefly through a barred window and she said she had been beaten in an effort to get her to admit illness, the news agency said.
Growing dissent in Uzbekistan has led to a wave of arrests. Urlayeva was picked up in August while she was handing out copies of a cartoon that depicted the country as a cow with bureaucrats sucking its milk.
She was examined immediately afterwards by a psychiatrist who declared that she was not mentally ill.
Posted by andrew on October 2, 2005 10:56 AM in the category Uzbekistan