Shahida Salomova
Human rights defender, lawyer, and blogger. Salomova was known for providing free legal guidance to victims of forced evictions and urban planning abuses and for administering popular online channels (including Telegram and YouTube) focused on rights issues in Uzbekistan.
As of the latest reports (2025), Salomova remains confined under compulsory psychiatric detention in Uzbekistan. A court ordered her confinement to a psychiatric institution in 2022, and on 5 January (year not publicly specified but reported as 2025) a local court ordered her transfer to a closed psychiatric hospital with restrictions on contact with family and lawyers.
Public sources do not list a conventional set of formal criminal charges with specific Criminal Code articles in the way that typical criminal cases do. Instead, her case involved accusations of defamation and insult related to her social-media posts accusing the president and his relatives of corruption — categories that can implicate provisions on defamation, insult and spreading “false information” under Uzbek law. Human-rights reports characterize her detention as punitive psychiatric confinement rather than prosecution on standard Penal Code charges.
There is no publicly available record of a conventional criminal trial with open court proceedings as would be found in a normal judicial case. Instead, Uzbek authorities used civil and administrative procedures and mental-health determinations to justify her confinement in psychiatric institutions. Human-rights monitors and the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing have raised concerns that she was moved from a more open institution to a closed psychiatric hospital without independent medical oversight and without access to her lawyer or family.
Salomova is held under compulsory psychiatric detention in a facility in Tashkent (described by rights groups as the Republican Psychiatric Hospital of Intensive Observation or a similar closed psychiatric institution). Reports indicate she has been confined for more than a year since her arrest and that family and legal representatives face barriers to access. Her confinement is considered part of a broader pattern of punitive psychiatric detention used against critics of the government.
Multiple independent reports raise serious concerns about her health, noting deterioration during detention. Salomova suffers from chronic conditions including diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure, which rights groups warn may be exacerbated by forced confinement and administration of psychotropic drugs. Independent medical assessment requests have been blocked by authorities, and her ability to receive appropriate care has been repeatedly questioned by international observers.
