Uzbek photos anger officials

The panel concluded that “her unscientific, unsound and inappropriate comments” contained hidden implicatinos.

The well-known photographer said investigators offered her amnesty if she pleaded guilty.

‘Vague charges’

“I refused it as I am not a criminal,” Akhmedova said.

“I cannot understand … where is the libel here. I don’t understand why, after several years of the photographs being published, a criminal case being opened against me,” she told Al Jazeera.

“The charges are so vague – that it contradicts Uzbek traditions. I am not political at all. I am just interested in the lives of ordinary people,” she said.

The Uzbek prosecutor general’s office denied it had opened a criminal case against Akhmedova.

Maisy Wicher-ding, a Central Asia expert with the human rights group Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera that the life Akhmedova recorded does not conform with the image the government wants to project to the world.

“They prefer a much more sanitised version,” Maisy said.

“The Uzbek government has long been waging a public relations campaign. They say there’s freedom of expression, and human rights are respected, but when you look at the practice, that is not what’s happening.

“However, this is the first time we have someone being pursued for their perceived expression of dissent. She did not set out to dissent.

“She is not a political activist … she is not a human rights defender. This goes beyond what happens normally where any expression of dissent is swiftly clamped down on by authorities.”

The book containing more than 100 photographs of rural life and a documentary film about women’s rights, were both funded by the Swiss embassy in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.

However, embassy officials distanced themselves from the projects after the film, “The Burden of Virginity,” proved controversial upon its release in 2009.