"She was brought to this state." Relatives of the FNPZ employee who set herself on fire accused plant management of lying, 07 August 2022

In the morning of August 2, Sanobarkhon Khaydarova, 47, a worker at the Ferghana Oil Refinery, poured gasoline on herself and set herself on fire.

This way she expressed her protest against dismissal from work.

As mentioned in the statement of the General Prosecutor's Office of Uzbekistan, the Ferghana City Prosecutor's Office is conducting pre-investigation checks.

The management of the FNPZ stated that Sanobarkhon Khaidarova was not fired, but was not allowed to work due to the absence of her pass. In addition the plant management claimed in a statement that the woman set herself on fire as a result of being in stress due to certain difficulties in the family.

However, in a conversation with Ozodlik, Khaidarova's relatives say that the company's security guards forcibly took the woman out of the factory and ignored her warning about setting herself on fire...

It must be mentioned that the employees of the Fergana Oil Refinery in the past as well complained about staff cuts and low wages.

During the past years, several protests have taken place at the plant...

[Translation provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, original article available in Russian here]