Jamshid Karimov, a 39 years old independent journalist and nephew of the president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, is still kept in the Samarkand Special Psychiatric Hospital. He disappeared in Jizzakh city on 12 December 2006. Later, it was found that he was forcibly taken to undergo treatment in the above-mentioned mental hospital. He is well known as an independent journalist and as a nephew of president - two things that cannot be put together in Uzbekistan. He was also well known for his critical reports about the Andijan events of May 2005 and other articles criticizing his uncle.

My friend from Jizzakh, who knew Jamshid Karimov, says he is an absolutely mentally healthy person. I guess Jamshid Karimov was put in the mental hospital just because he is the president’s nephew, otherwise he could have been sent to jail. However, it is known that in such cases psychiatric hospitals are worse than jails, because “patients” like Karimov are forced to undergo “brainwashing,” a treatment with psychotropic medicines that causes the mental unsteadiness and behavior change in the treated individual.

Richard McKane, a writer and member of the English PEN Writers in Prison Committee, to which Jamshid Karimov was elected as an honorary member for suffering for his independent journalism, says that sending Jamshid Karimov, a completely mentally healthy person, to the mental hospital reminded him of Soviet times when Soviet psychiatric hospitals served as a place for the authorities to repress dissidents. I agree with Richard McKane that in the USSR mental hospitals served as a place where authorities could “neutralize” their opponents, as they don’t attract too much attention.

It is also said that Jamshid Karimov is held in a one-person room with no door but bars from floor to ceiling which lets the hospital staff to observe their patient day and night.

According to the chief doctor of the hospital Akbar Abdusattarov, Jamshid Karomov was mentally ill and was taken to the hospital according to the decision of the city court of Jizakh.

Uz.cafspeech.kz (rus) reports that not only friends but also close relatives of Jamshid Karimov are forbidden to visit him. His mother Margarita Karimova is in deep grief as she cannot contact her son. Her telephone cannot receive incoming calls, as it is blocked by the goverment authority.

I am deeply sorry for Jamshid and all others journalists who are unjustly kept in prisons. I think the case with Jamshid Karimov is just a drop in the ocean. President Karimov has been really harsh regarding mass media in Uzbekistan in trying to keep control over it. It is possible that this year mass media will be scrutinized even more severely, as in December there should be held presidential elections.