UZBEKISTAN: ATTACKS ON BLOGGER MUST BE INVESTIGATED AND THE PERPETRATORS BROUGHT TO JUSTICE

Miraziz Bazarov, a blogger from Uzbekistan, was severely beaten by unidentified masked people in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on 28 March 2021. Prior to the attack Bazarov had criticised current government policies in his Telegram channel and TikTok account, including the authorities’ refusal to decriminalise consensual sexual relations between men. Amnesty International calls on the government of Uzbekistan to investigate both the physical and the online homophobic attacks on the blogger and to prosecute those responsible.