CONTACTAbout UsCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2025 Equal Entertainment LLC.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
We need your help
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.
An Uzbek appeals court rejected a plea Tuesday by a gay journalist to be freed on bail while his case is being reconsidered, after his defense claimed that pressure by authorities is making it impossible to freely discuss the case with their client while he is in prison. Ruslan Sharipov was sentenced last month to 5 1/2 years in jail for having sex with a man, having sex with minors, and running a brothel. He pleaded guilty and dismissed his lawyers at the trial after earlier maintaining that he was innocent and the case fabricated. In a letter earlier this month to U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, Sharipov wrote that he had been tortured in jail and coerced to plead guilty and that he had also been forced to write a suicide note declaring that killing himself was his own choice. "I was clearly told that if I would write any further appeals or complaints, I would commit suicide, that is, I would 'kill myself,"' Sharipov wrote in the letter, released by human rights activists. Sharipov wrote that police chose forms of torture that wouldn't leave marks on his body, such as placing a gas mask on his head and spraying an unknown substance inside that hindered breathing. He also said he was threatened with being injected with HIV. During a visit last year, a U.N. special envoy found evidence of "systematic" torture in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government has acknowledged individual cases but denied that torture is as widespread as the U.N. report claimed. During Tuesday's hearing, journalists and diplomats from the British, French, German, and Dutch embassies were asked to leave the courtroom by Judge Shagiaz Sharakhmetov, who said the hearing at the Tashkent city court was closed. Surat Ikramov, a human rights activist on Sharipov's defense team, said they made the bail request because Sharipov is suffering from tuberculosis and heart problems and because lawyers are finding it difficult to communicate with Sharipov due to obstacles being thrown up by prison authorities.
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Watch Now: Pride Today
Latest Stories
Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ Texans find joy and hope at Drag University
July 07 2025 4:10 PM
Indiana church stands by sermons calling for the government to execute LGBTQ+ people
July 07 2025 3:10 PM
Idaho Attorney General tells schools to ban 'Everyone is Welcome Here' signs
July 07 2025 1:11 PM
David Archuleta on loving sexy crop tops & the skin he's in
July 07 2025 12:32 PM
The 50th Invasion of the Pines: See pics of queer joy & drag
July 07 2025 12:23 PM
These hotlines are still available for LGBTQ+ youth after Trump kills 988 services
July 07 2025 9:53 AM