On March 19, 2026, President Mirziyoyev announced that 392 convicted criminals currently serving prison sentences in Uzbekistan had been pardoned. Among them, 223 individuals were fully released from serving their sentences, while 82 were released on parole, and 34 had their sentences commuted to more lenient ones.
These pardons take place regularly and are granted to citizens who have “sincerely repented their actions and firmly committed themselves to reform.”
Meanwhile dozens of bloggers and rights activists remain behind bars following often flawed trials based on questionable evidence including Dildora Khakimova and Valijon Kalonov, to name just two particularly egregious cases which raise questions about Uzbekistan’s commitments to international human rights standards and compliance with its own legislation.
Dildora Khakimova
Dildora Khakimova is a teacher, social media activist and a mother of three who suffers from breast cancer. She was arrested in February 2024 and is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for alleged extortion of approximately $1,000, based solely on the testimony of the “victim” – a former school principal who was dismissed for misconduct and appears to have been motivated by revenge following Khakimova’s reporting on corruption at the school.
Khakimova’s medical circumstances give grave cause for concern. Although she is now undergoing chemotherapy, she is suffering from severe side-effects incuding a stomach ulcer, headaches, fatigue, and toothache for which the prison makes few or no concessions.
On one occasion, during a cold spell in winter this year, prison guards even ordered her to remove an extra scarf she had put on her head to protect her from the cold following loss of her hair as a result of chemotherapy.
Over the past years, Khakimova’s family has repeatedly appealed to the Uzbek authorities to show compassion for a mother of three young children, the youngest not yet two and a half, but these appeals have gone unheeded.
In response to another appeal from her relatives, the Ombudsman’s Office in January this year stated that “the diagnosis established for Dildora Khakimova does not correspond to the list of diagnoses specified in the Joint Resolution No. 12/9 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Health ‘On approving the rules for the medical examination of convicted persons suffering from serious illnesses and their submission for release from serving their sentence on medical grounds.’ Therefore, no positive decision was made regarding Khakimova’s release on health grounds.”
Under these circumstances, her full recovery, indeed possibly her life, is in jeopardy.
Uzbekistan has breached multiple international human rights obligations, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), as well as authoritative soft law instruments such the Nelson Mandela Rules, the United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and the Bangkok Rules, the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners.
Khakimova’s treatment also violates the principles of Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code, which provide that women with children under the age of three should, as a rule, not be subjected to imprisonment for offenses that do not pose a significant social danger.
Uzbekistan has precedent for releasing prisoners on compassionate and medical grounds. In January 2025, Salim Abduvaliyev, a well-known “businessman” also known as “Salimboy”, who was convicted for illegal possession of firearms was released due to health complications. While serving his six – year prison sentence in August 2024, the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan issued an arrest warrant against Abduvaliyev, reportedly for links to an organized criminal group.
In another example of acute humanism, the former Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan, Aziz Voitov, was released from custody in the courtroom in September 2025. The court found him guilty of embezzling public funds on a large scale but, taking into account full compensation, sentenced him to three years of community service and a fine.
Such selective humanity raises serious questions as to why a notorious criminal figure or former official was spared a prison sentence, while the system continues to hold a cancer-stricken activist and mother of three in its grip.
Valijon Kalonov
Valijon Kalonov is a blogger and social activist who has been detained against his will in a psychiatric hospital since December 2021 despite having no history of mental illness. He was the first person to be charged of the crime of “insulting the president online” after he posted a video calling for a boycott of the presidential elections.
Assessments of his mental health are based solely on the medical board of the state, which reconfirms the diagnosis of his mental illness every six months and considers that he has “still not repented his crime”. His only crime – a video appeal that contained no calls for violence or other destructive acts – was deemed sufficient grounds to keep Kalonov in custody for more than four years.
This is not the first time the Uzbek authorities have used bogus psychiatric assessments and forced psychiatric treatment to silence and discredit critics. Kalonov’s detention follows a pattern of similar cases in which activists have been falsely diagnosed with mental illness based on state-ordered forensic examinations.
In February, 2025, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued an opinion regarding the legality of Kalonov’s detention under international human rights law. It found that he had been “arbitrarily detained” and urged the government “to release him immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.”
The WGAD explicitly found Kalonov’s deprivation of liberty arbitrary because it resulted from his exercise of freedom of opinion and expression. The government acknowledged he was detained for exercising this right, even while contending it was abused. Restrictions on freedom of expression must comply with strict requirements and cannot be invoked to stifle advocacy for multi-party democracy or to punish peaceful expression of critical views.
The WGAD also concluded that Kalonov is detained based on his political opinion, which violates international law on grounds of discrimination and that his detention contravenes articles 2, 7, and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 2, 19, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Uzbekistan is a State party.
Although the Director of the National Centre for Human Rights of Uzbekistan, Mr Akmal Saidov, sits on the UN Human Rights Committee, Uzbekistan has thus far failed to demonstrate greater respect for the decisions of UN bodies by implementing the opinion of the WGAD.
If President Mirziyoyev wishes to maintain Uzbekistan’s carefully crafted international public image as a nation willing to embrace human rights, democracy and rule of law, he should use his executive power to release Dildora Khakimova and Valijon Kalonov immediately .
