He is the editor of Erk, the last opposition newspaper in Uzbekistan until it was banned by the authorities in 1993, and he was jailed on 18 August 1999 in the wave of repression after the failed assassination attempt on President Islam Karimov in Tashkent on 16 February 1999.
Karimov crushed all dissidence on the pretext that there was an Islamic fundamentalist threat in the region. Ruzimuradov was jailed for eight years for "participating in an illegal organisation" and insulting the president in the media. The US organisation Human Rights Watch says he and others arrested the same day have been "cruelly and continuously tortured" in prison.
Members of their families have been threatened with rape and ill-treatment and psychological pressure have been used to extract "confessions."
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