Tashkent's Yunusabad Probation Department officials have threatened former Muslim prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev that he will be returned to prison if he violates once again the terms of his conditional release. The warning came after he visited his mother in hospital after an operation on 8 January. On the way home. He visited a nearby mosque to pray for her health. Probation Department officials identified him on the mosque's state-controlled surveillance cameras.

"If you are caught one more time violating the house arrest regime, we will send you back to prison," Probation Department officials warned him 29 days after his mosque visit (see below).

Khursand Musayev, the Probation Officer, who is responsible for Arifkhojayev's case, did not answer his phone each time Forum 18 called. Forum 18 was unable to reach any official of the Probation Department of the Interior Ministry in Tashkent (see below).

On transfer to conditional release in December 2025, the court imposed restrictions on the 45-year-old Arifkhojayev, including a ban on visiting mosques (see below).

Meanwhile, former Tashkent imam Fazliddin Parpiyev remains in a Turkish deportation centre in Ankara awaiting likely extradition or deportation to Uzbekistan. Police in the Turkish city of Istanbul arrested him on 25 December 2025. The arrest came "at the request of Uzbekistan's Ambassador to Türkiye". If he is returned to Uzbekistan, he is likely to be arrested, tried and jailed (see below).

Imam Parpiyev fled Uzbekistan in December 2018 "for my safety" after appealing to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev "as Muslims .. cannot have full freedom of religion and belief". He went to Turkey, where he received Turkish citizenship. Since his December 2025 arrest, the Turkish authorities have stripped him of Turkish citizenship (see below).

Extraditing citizens to punish them for exercising freedom of religion or belief

The regime has long sought the extradition of individuals to punish them for exercising freedom of religion or belief, sometimes years after they have moved abroad. At least seven individuals have recently been on Russia's Interior Ministry Federal Wanted List at Uzbekistan's request.

In 2025, Russia's Interior Ministry removed from its Wanted List Alisher Ahmadovich Tursunov (born 1 January 1974). Known as Mubashshir Ahmad, he is a former employee of the state-controlled Muslim Board, then head of Azon.uz religious news website. He was wanted since August 2023 under Uzbek Criminal Code Article 244-3 ("Illegal production, storage, import or distribution of religious literature"). He was in exile in Turkey, but the Turkish authorities arrested him in May 2025 at Uzbekistan's request and deported him to Uzbekistan.

A Tashkent court jailed Tursunov on 8 October 2025 for 2 years and 6 months. Tursunov chose not to appeal and was taken to a labour camp in Navoi Region in November 2025 to begin serving his sentence.

Former prisoner of conscience transferred to conditional release

On 11 December 2025, Tashkent's Yunusabad District Criminal Court ordered Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev, a former prisoner of conscience, to be transferred to restricted freedom - effective house arrest - for the rest of his original term. The Judge set this remaining term as three years, ten months and seven days. This means Arifkhojayev's term is now due to end in October 2029.

Police arrested the now 45-year-old Arifkhojayev, a Muslim known for his criticisms of the regime's religious policies, in June 2021. At a closed trial in January 2022, Tashkent's Olmazor District Criminal Court jailed him for seven and half years in a labour camp. Officials freed him under restrictions in December 2023.

Under his current conditions, Arifkhojayev is banned from leaving Tashkent city, using the internet, and attending meetings, including attending mosque. He is allowed to leave home only to go to work (though he cannot currently find a job). When Forum 18 asked Judge Fatima Ismoilova in January 2026 why she ordered Arifkhojayev to serve the rest of his term under house arrest, she put the phone down.

Interior Ministry to send former prisoner of conscience back to prison for praying for sick mother in mosque?

On 6 February 2026, a little less than two months after being transferred to conditional release, Yunusabad Probation Department of the Interior Ministry warned Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev that he will be sent back to prison if he violates the conditions once more.

"His mother became seriously ill and was hospitalised on 8 January," Arifkhojayev's family explained to Forum 18 on 10 February. "She needed urgent surgery and we borrowed money to pay for her surgery." After the surgery on the same day, Arifkhojayev spent two hours with her in her hospital room. At about 3:30 pm on the way home, Arifkhojayev went into Tashkent's Yakhyo Qori Mosque near the hospital to pray for his mother's health.

On 6 February - 29 days later - Probation Department officials summoned Arifkhojayev and showed him the footage of the surveillance camera taken during his mosque visit on the afternoon of 8 January. "If you are caught one more time violating the house arrest regime, we will send you back to prison," officials warned him.

The regime has long kept places of worship under surveillance. From 2018 mosques had to pay for surveillance cameras controlled by the regime to be installed inside and outside mosques. In early 2022, the Interior Ministry also ordered non-Muslim communities to install the cameras.

Muslim and non-Muslim religious communities and followers told Forum 18 in 2022 that some people stopped attending meetings for worship, for fear of being identified and then facing state reprisals. A Muslim commented that "we want to concentrate on our meetings for worship, and not be afraid".

Arifkhojayev's family who visited the Probation Department, provided Forum 18 the photos of the camera footage of Arifkhojayev filmed by the authorities from the Mosque visit. The family told Forum 18 they took the photos when the officers showed them the footage.

Khursand Musayev, the Probation Officer, who is responsible for Arifkhojayev's case, did not answer his phone on 16 or 17 February, despite numerous calls.

Forum 18 asked the official who answered the phone at the reception of the Interior Ministry on 16 February who it could talk to about the case of Arifkhojayev. The official, who did not give his name, asked it to wait on the line for a moment and then said that he is going to put it through to the responsible official at the Ministry's Probation Service. However, no one answered the phone. The Ministry reception did not answer further calls on the same day.

Interior Ministry Press Service and other Ministry officials in Tashkent did not answer their phones each time Forum 18 called on 16 and 17 February.

Family left without job and means to live

The family also complained to Forum 18 that the Probation Department has banned Arifkhojayev from working online and also from working as a taxi driver "since these violate your house arrest regime" as they have claimed to him. "Taxi driver is the only suitable job, which avoids using the internet, and which could help him to earn enough money to take care of us," the family lamented. "And they do not allow even this."

"Other jobs pay very little, which cannot even cover the cost of our food," they explained. "We have debt and no job," they lamented, adding that Arifkhojayev's wife "cannot work and is taking care of a new-born child".

Imam Parpiyev's expected extradition from Turkey

Police in the Turkish city of Istanbul arrested the former imam Fazliddin Shakhobidinovich Parpiyev (born 25 January 1986) at 2:30 am on 25 December 2025. The arrest came "at the request of Uzbekistan's Ambassador to Türkiye". Officials took Parpiyev on the day of the arrest to a deportation centre in the capital Ankara.

Parpiyev is a graduate of the Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia, and of Tashkent's Islamic Institute named after Imam Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari. A former Tashkent imam, he fled Uzbekistan in December 2018 "for my safety" after appealing to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev "as Muslims .. cannot have full freedom of religion and belief". He went to Turkey, where he received Turkish citizenship.

In 2025, the Russian authorities put Parpiyev on their Federal Wanted List at Uzbekistan's request. They removed him from the list after his detention in Turkey.

After his arrest, the Turkish authorities revoked Parpiyev's Turkish citizenship. As of 28 January 2026, he was being held at the Migration Department's Akyurt Return [detention] Centre in Ankara, his Lawyer Gülden Solmaz announced at a press-conference in Ankara that day. The press conference was organised by "Mazlumder" [the Oppressed], an independent Muslim human rights organisation.

The Turkish authorities are believed to be planning to extradite or deport Parpiyev to Uzbekistan at the request of the Uzbek authorities. If he is returned to Uzbekistan, he is likely to be arrested, tried and jailed.

Parpiyev's Facebook account has not published any new information since 2 February.

Human rights defenders from Uzbekistan, who asked not to be named for fear of state reprisals, told Forum 18 on 16 February that they are not aware that Imam Parpiyev had been sent back to Uzbekistan.

Phones at Akyurt Return Centre in Ankara went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 16 and 17 February.

The address of the Return (detention) Centre where Paripiyev is being detained:

Türkiye Cümhuriyyeti
İç İşleri Bakanlığı
Göç İdaresi Başkanlığı
Yeşiltepe Mahallesi Çankırı Bulvarı No:395 Akyurt/ANKARA

(END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Uzbekistan

For background information, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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