Uzbekistan has freed a reporter who was incarcerated for nearly two decades on sedition charges, the longest-known prison term served by a journalist, human rights advocates said Friday.

The reporter, Yusuf Ruzimuradov, 64, who worked for a newspaper banned by the Uzbek authorities, had been held since 1999.

“Glad to hear that #journalist Yusuf Ruzimuradov was released from #Uzbekistan prison,” the Eurasia division of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an advocacy group, said on its Twitter account. The group said he had been held “longer than anybody else in the world — after being convicted on politicized charges in a quick sham trial.”

Steve Swerdlow, the Central Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement: “Today, I got a Skype message I will treasure: the government of Uzbekistan has finally released journalist Yusuf Ruzimuradov after 19 long years in jail.”