Akrom Yo‘ldoshev

Who is Akrom Yo‘ldoshev?

Akrom Yo‘ldoshev or Akramjon Yo‘ldoshev or Akram Yuldashev in Russian: Акрам Юлдашев Akram Yuldashev, born in 1963) is the founder of Akromiya, an Islamist organization that operates in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government has designated and banned Akromiya as terrorist.

Yo‘ldoshev is a native of Andijan, Uzbekistan and was trained as an engineer. He worked as a math teacher and for a furniture company in Andijan, before forming Akromiya. In 1992 he published Yimonga Yul, a pamphlet advocating Islamic values that gained him support among the populace. Uzbek police arrested him in April, 1998 for possession of narcotics. A court sentenced him to 30 months imprisonment, but the government released him in December 1998 due to an amnesty. Police arrested him in February 1999, the day after the 1999 Tashkent bombings that killed 16 people, accusing him of involvement. A court sentenced him to 17 years imprisonment for heading Akromiya.

Critics of the Uzbek government doubt that he is guilty of the charges against him. Scott Horton of the Columbia Law School has said "There's nothing that involves a challenge to government." Alisher Ilkhamov, an Uzbek who is a sociologist at the University of London, said "The government perceives any grass-roots movement with hostility, whether it's Islamic or not". These critics claim that "the fierce response to Yuldashev stems from the government's deep fear of any religious group that operates without official sanction".