AKIPRESS.COM - Uzbek authorities sent the recently released prisoners to the ancient Silk Route city of Samarkan, the RFE/RL reported.

They visited major attractions including the Al-Buhari Memorial Complex, Gur-i Emir (Tamerlane's grave), the observatory of Ulughbek, and...the tomb of Uzbekistan's first postindependence leader, Islam Karimov.

When Karimov was president, until his death in 2016, all these former inmates were imprisoned for alleged membership in banned Islamic groups.

The Tashkent provincial administration organized the pilgrimage.

"Those formerly convicted of religious crimes who had repented," according to the press service of Uzbekistan's Spiritual Board of Muslims, would spend two days visiting the complex and the grave in Samarkand.

All of the travelers were reportedly released under an amnesty declared by President Shavkat Mirziyoev at the end of 2017 in honor of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of Uzbekistan's post-Soviet constitution.

The December releases were part of the first mass amnesty declared since Uzbekistan became independent in late 1991. Some 2,700 people were freed.

When Karimov was in power, those detained for membership in a banned Islamic group were almost certain to be convicted and sentenced to prison. In some cases, they had reportedly been beaten or tortured to extract confessions.