Asia Watch said it had confirmed the authenticity of a document detailing the prisoners' plight that was smuggled out of the prison in July.
But after someone else confessed to the crime and the men remained in prison, their plight attracted a long list of supporters, including former judges, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and even some of the jurors in their cases.
He was virtually alone among the Ferghana Valley press corps in writing regularly on torture in Uzbek prisons, the plight of the refugees and political unrest across the border.
Case in point: "The Hurricane," the true story of the prizefighter Rubin Carter, who is wrongfully convicted of murder and spends nearly 20 years in prison before his plight is re-examined and he is released.
Writers whose dreams of a radical future have propelled them into political conflicts and power struggles have often ended up in prison, and their plight has given a hard and embittered edge to their voices.
Her documentary entitled "Angels in Prison," examining the plight of young children born and living with their mothers in prisons in the Philippines, won the Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award in 2003.
Prison conditions and the plight of ex-convicts.
In a parting shot, Stephanopoulos handed the former basketball player a copy of a Human Rights Watch's report on North Korea, pointing out references to prison camps and the plight of millions of starving citizens.
When a highly respected organisation like the WI looks at the dark, neglected world of prisons and highlights the plight of the mentally ill then things will start changing for the better.
Juliet Lyon, of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "When a highly respected organisation like the WI looks at the dark, neglected world of prisons and highlights the plight of people who are mentally ill then things start changing for the better".
