Azam Farmonov is an Uzbekistani rural development activist who spent 11 years in prison following conviction for extortion in 2006.^[1] Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience and in 2011 named him a "priority case".^[2]

Farmonov has a wife, Ozoda Yakubova, and two children.^[3] His father-in-law, Talib Yakubov, is the Vice President of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan.^[3]

On 29 April 2006, Farmonov was arrested along with fellow activist Alisher Karamatov and charged with extortion.^[2] The two later reported torture by security forces, including partial suffocation with a disconnected gas mask and beatings on the legs and heels.^[2] Human Rights Watch condemned the trial and stated that it "appear[ed] to be a politically motivated effort to stop their human rights work" in keeping with a recent pattern of suspicious charges against human rights workers.^[4] Front Line also described the arrests as politically motivated and "part of an ongoing campaign against human rights defenders in Uzbekistan."^[5] Amnesty International condemned the charges and called for the immediate release of Farmonov and Karamatov.^[2] Uzbekistani government officials, however, denied that the extortion charges were politically motivated.^[4]

Both men were convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison.^[2] Farmonov was the first citizen activist to be sent to the notorious Jaslik "severe regime" prison camp^[6] in violation of his sentence, which called for a "general regime" camp.^[7] According to his wife, he was repeatedly placed in a "punishment cell," and on 8 January 2008, was stripped naked, handcuffed, and left in an unheated punishment cell for 23 days.^[7] In April 2015 his prison term was extended by another five years after the authorities accused him of disobedience to prison rules.^[1]

Farmonov was freed from Jaslik on 3 October 2017, two and a half years before the end of his extended prison sentence.^[1][6]