ABA forced to close down
Politics and Society, Uzbekistan3 Comments
The Ministry of Justice filed a civil claim to Tashkent Court demanding that ABA/CEELI cease its operations in Uzbekistan. So what unlawful conduct is incriminated to ABA/CEELI? The Ministry accuses it of engaging in activities not foreseen under its charter (legal assistance to unregistered organisations, creation and support of local NGOs) and substantive violations of legislation (failure to submit documentation on the use of property and funds, acting as a branch office, etc).
This comes as no surprise but rather as an inevitable consequence of the ongoing official campaign of driving international organisations out of the country. In this case, the Ministry followed the standard procedure that they’ve been employing so successfully over the past 9 months in closing local NGOs: first they fake evidence and send a notice to the NGO demanding that it stop its “illegal practices”, then bring it before the court where the last warning is issued by the judge, and finally upon the purported failure of the NGO to comply with the order the court takes the decision to close it down. NGOs are usually given 1-2 months to “repent”. Let’s wait and see how long it will take the Ministry to finish off the job in this particular case.
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[...] Olesya comments on the first steps in the inevitable closure of the American Bar Association–Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative in Uzbekistan. [...]
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Actually, Olesya, this is a new modality. Previously, they’d taken groups to court to seek their suspension. Then it gets turned over to prosecutors, who file criminal charges and eventually liquidation is sought based on violation of criminal charges.
This is potentially a one-step process — using the civil route to shut them down immediately. This could happen very, very fast.
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