TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- In the fading light of a summer's evening, the three-story yellow building, standing in the middle of a cozy yard of coniferous trees in the north of this city, seems warm and inviting. It has the allure of a new house. But the high walls topped with concertina wire, the metal doors, and bars on the windows remind visitors it is a prison -- albeit a very special kind of prison. A man who introduces himself as foreman Sasha emphasizes that the prison "fully meets all international standards." He offers a tour of the facility his team has built. "We will not find ourselves here," Sasha says, not because he is certain neither of us will commit a crime, but because we do not belong to the privileged group for whom the prison was constructed. Indeed, Sasha points out, his past experience building houses for Tashkent's monied class equipped him well for his latest job: building a prison to house the rarefied criminals among Uzbekistan's top government officials.
Karimov’s New Prison Designed to Isolate Former Uzbekistan Officials
