Jun 272012
 
Mukhayo Adylova was raped in a police department. Photo by the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan
27.06.12 01:45
When will Uzbekistan stop tortures?
On 26 June, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan (HRAU) spoken of new victims of torture in Uzbekistan.

“Uzbekistan is marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture with new victims and unwillingness to restore the rights and freedom of victims of torture,” says HRAU leader Elena Urlayeva, citing several examples of such cases.

Are tortures continued?

In March 2012, police officers in the Mirabad district police department in Tashkent tortured Anton Khizhnyakov, 20, in order to make him shoulder the blame for the crime he had not committed.

HRAU members have sent claims to the prosecutor’s office and the head of the police department, but none of them has taken any measure so far to investigate the case of torture.

Salokhutdin Tilalov has also sent a claim to the Uzbek prosecutor’s office complaining about police officers in Samarkand who had beaten him for several days to make him take the blame in a murder case.

Sometime later, the real murderer was found and Tilalov was set free. But no-one has done anything so far to hold to account those policemen who tortured the innocent man.

Dilshod Khamzayev is currently seeking refuge in Austria because the Uzbek prosecutor’s office has not opened a criminal case against police officers from Tashkent’s Yunus-Abad district police department, who has broken his nose and ribs.

Mukhayo Adylova has been raped and beaten up by top officials from the Uzbek Interior Ministry during investigation.

Anton Khizhnyakov was forced with tortures to take the blame for another’s crime
Instead of investigating the facts of torture, the Uzbek authorities persecuted Mukhayo and her relatives.

Underage Valentina Dyomina has been tortured by police officers in the town of Yangiyul. A court has ignored her claim about tortures. Complaints by her parents and members of the alliance to the authorities have yielded no result.

Andrey Vazhenin has been beaten up and tortured by electricity in the Mirzo Ulugbek district police department. Numerous complaints about this fact have been ignored though Vazhenin told a court about tortures and showed traces of torture and scars on his body.

Through the alliance’s press centre, Pyotr Militsin has posted on Internet a video showing his face smashed after tortures in Tashkent’s main interior directorate. He has written complaints about tortures, but no-one from the police has been held to criminal account.

During investigation, Guzal Nakipov was beaten up with batons by policemen, who tortured her by hanging and beating in her kidney.

Umid Mirzayev was beaten up by investigators in Tashkent’s Almazar district police department. Members of the Human Rights Alliance have managed to ensure a medical examination, but these facts of torture have also been ignored by the court and the prosecutor’s office.

“The Human Rights Alliance has sent a message about facts of torture to the UN Committee Against Torture and hopes for a competent assistance for the victims of torture in Uzbekistan,” Urlayeva concluded.

Publicity first of all

“Yes, there are many facts of torture, but, meanwhile, one should not say that Uzbekistan is not fighting against torture at all,” the head of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists, Surat Ikramov, has added.

He said that the prosecutor’s office launches investigation into almost all of the group’s complaints about torture. However, results of those checks are hushed up thoroughly.

“Policemen accused of torturing are often punished, but information as to who and how they are punished is not publicised,” Ikarmov says.

In his opinion, there should be publicity in this matter. If newspapers and TV channels report about policemen held to account for torture, their colleagues will think whether it is worth committing such a crime.

Uznews.net

http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=top&cid=3&nid=20224

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