Valijon Kalonov
Blogger and social media activist; commentator on politics, human rights, and government policy.
As of late 2025 / early 2026, he remains detained indefinitely in a psychiatric institution under compulsory psychiatric treatment not in a standard prison following a court ruling. His detention has been judged arbitrary by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Although Uzbekistan’s authorities initially linked his detention to alleged threats to public safety and insulting the president online, the court did not convict him on ordinary criminal charges. Instead, it found him unfit to stand trial on psychiatric grounds and ordered psychiatric detention. Reported alleged grounds include:
-
“Threatening public safety”
-
“Insulting the president online” under amended criminal provisions concerning online speech.
-
Allegations of spreading harmful materials via social media.
However, the official court did not issue a conventional prison sentence for those offenses — the compulsory psychiatric detention replaced a criminal conviction.
A psychiatric evaluation in late 2021 concluded he suffered from “chronic mental illness” and was a danger to society, which served as the basis for compulsory psychiatric detention.
No open, transparent criminal conviction in ordinary court has been publicly documented.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in February 2025 found his ongoing detention arbitrary under international law (violating provisions of the UDHR and ICCPR), and recommended his immediate release. The Uzbek government has not implemented that recommendation.
Held in forced psychiatric detention — initially placed in the Samarkand Regional Neuropsychiatric Dispensary after the 2021 ruling and later moved to the Djizak Regional Psychoneurological Dispensary.
The duration of compulsory psychiatric care is not fixed by usual prison sentencing standards; it is renewed through expert panels periodically.
Authorities claimed (via state-ordered psychiatric assessment) that he had “chronic mental illness, obsessive-compulsive disorder and impaired logical thinking” the basis for detention.
Independent sources and close contacts dispute that he had a legitimate mental health condition prior to detention, and human rights monitors characterize the diagnosis and confinement as punitive psychiatric detention rather than treatment.
There are no independent reports confirming his current physical or mental health status. International experts emphasize the risk of abuse and lack of oversight in such institutions.
