Poet and singer on trial in Uzbekistan
Human rights activists believe that 66-year-old Dadakhon Hasan is really being tried for a song he wrote about the brutal crushing of the peaceful demonstration in Andijon in May 2005
The singer and poet Dadakon Hasan is on trial in Tashkent, accused of insulting the President of Uzbekistan and of “disseminating material jeopardizing public order”.
Human rights activists consider that the real reason for the court trial of the 66-year-old Hasan is that he wrote a song about the savage crushing of the demonstration in Andijon in May last year.
In Soviet times Hasan was persecuted for nationalistic songs, and in 1992 he was prohibited from giving concerts.