Watchdog

Jailed Uzbek politician Samandar Qoqonov, who has been behind bars for more than 23 years, has been released from prison, his relatives say.

Family members told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service they received a phone call early on November 24 from the prison authorities, who told them an October court ruling that prolonged Qoqonov’s jail term had been annulled.

Qoqonov, 72, a former parliament member, was expected to be released on October 6 after serving his 23-year sentence on embezzlement charges.

However, the family was told on October 30 that Qoqonov's prison term had earlier been prolonged by another three years and five days due to "violation of the penitentiary’s internal regulations."

Qoqonov, dubbed by his supporters "Uzbekistan’s longest-held political prisoner," was arrested in July 1993. His supporters say that the embezzlement case against him was politically motivated.

In 1994 he was sentenced to 20 years in jail. The time he had spent in pretrial detention was not counted as served.

In 2014, Qoqonov's prison term was prolonged to three more years and later cut by two years.

Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter that Qoqonov’s release following public calls by the U.S. State Department was proof that "pressure works."

United Nations human rights experts have called on Iran to end the "harassment" of a woman trying to learn the fate of her brother and his newborn daughter who disappeared from prison more than 30 years ago.

Raheleh Rahemipour is now facing criminal charges and has undergone a lengthy interrogation at Tehran's Evin prison, the same jail where her relatives were last seen in 1984, the UN right experts said in a statement on November 24.

The statement said the campaign against Rahemipour "may be a direct reprisal for her human rights activism in the search for her relatives, as well as the exercise of her rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression."

The experts said the harassment against Rahemipour had increased "after concerns about the missing pair were relayed to the Iranian authorities by the working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances" in August 2016.

"Instead of replying to our call, the state authorities have now charged Ms. Rahemipour with a number of national security offenses, including propaganda against the regime, and participation in unlawful assemblies," the experts noted.

She has been given a court hearing date of December 13.

According to the statement, Rahemipour's brother and his pregnant wife were arrested over their "political beliefs." Their baby daughter was born in jail in April 1984, but was taken away a few days later, and the couple was told the baby had died.