The tightly-controlled Central Asian state of Uzbekistan has introduced pre-trial house arrest for the first time. Changes to legislation, which went into effect on Friday, will allow authorities to detain those facing trial in their homes as a preventive measure. "House arrest is applied to the suspect, the accused or the defendant... provided that detention is not unreasonable in view of their age, health, marital status and other circumstances," said the amendments published by state media.
Those under house arrest may be restricted from being in contact with certain people, receiving or sending correspondence, using any means of communication and leaving their home. Last year the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) made a rare decision to stop all prison visits in the ex-Soviet country, saying its terms were not honoured.
ICRC said its employees were not allowed to speak to prisoners in private, among other conditions.
The secular majority Muslim nation of 30 million has never revealed the total number of its prisoners. It is unclear how many people pass through detention centres every year. The US government's Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Uzbekistan said last year that the Uzbek government "reported that there were approximately 46,200 prisoners, an increase of an estimated 4,000 prisoners since 2009." "The government stated that the prison population dropped by 50 percent between 2000 and 2012, but this figure could not be verified," the report said.
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