One Humanity Award

An Empty Chair is placed in honour of Askarov at a PEN event at the 2016 Toronto International Festival of Authors. Photo by PEN Canada.

Azimjon Askarov, a member of Kyrgyzstan’s Uzbek minority, was a journalist and human rights defender best known for exposing corruption.

In June 2010 Askarov was convicted on trumped-up charges of organizing mass disorder and of complicity in the murder of a police officer in the wake of inter-ethnic violence. Three months later he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Askarov complained of being beaten and threatened while in custody, claims that were later verified by independent witnesses.

In March 2016 the UN Human Rights Committee stated that Askarov had been arbitrarily detained, tortured, mistreated, and prevented from adequately preparing his defence as well as being denied treatment for serious medical conditions. In July 2016, after several unsuccessful appeals, the Supreme Court overturned his life sentence.

On January 24, 2017 Kyrgyzstan’s Chui Regional Court reinstated the life sentence, a decision that PEN International denounced as “an appalling miscarriage of justice” and “another attempt by Kyrgyz authorities to suppress free speech.”