On May 1, 2026, an Uzbek court added two and a half years to the sentence of Karakalpak activist and political prisoner Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, who was already serving a 16-year sentence. HRF condemns the sentence as a blatant act of retaliation for peacefully defending Karakalpakstan’s rights.

Dauletmurat was imprisoned following the July 2022 Nukus protests, which erupted after Tashkent proposed constitutional amendments removing Karakalpakstan’s sovereign status within Uzbekistan. In 2024, HRF secured a decision from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which found Dauletmurat’s imprisonment arbitrary and called for his immediate release.

In a recent op-ed, Dauletmurat’s brother Renat described the years of pressure Dauletmurat faced in prison, including beatings, humiliation, forced labor in dangerous conditions, restrictions on family contact, and deliberate provocations intended to manufacture new charges.