An Uzbek woman imprisoned for criticising the government over its armed response to a protest in the town of Andizhan three years ago has won a prestigious international human rights award, organisers said on Thursday.
Mutabar Tadjibaeva, laureate of the 2008 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, is in declining health and her life is in danger, according to a statement by 10 leading human rights groups that form the prize's jury.
They demanded Tadjibaeva's immediate release and praised her as an "an exceptionally brave woman in a country where standing up for human rights is a dangerous activity which can lead to imprisonment and death, where human rights defenders often have to choose between prison or exile."
Uzbekistan has put pressure on activists since its troops quashed an uprising in the eastern town of Andizhan in May 2005. The government says that 187 people died during a police action against Islamist extremists, and that all the dead were either government troops or "terrorists".
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