Human rights activist Mamir Azimov…

Uznews.net – Human rights activist Mamir Azimov, who was beaten up by officers of the Jizak District police department for meeting the leader of Birdamlik (Solidarity) movement, Bahodir Choriyev, on 11 November, has been admitted to hospital because of pains in his heart and all over his body.

Mamir Azimov, who chairs the Jizak Region branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan and the Jizak Region association of human rights activists, will have to spend another 10 days in hospital.

His and his doctors’ biggest concern is pains in his heart, while injuries inflicted by hits and kicks of two officers are also bothering Azimov.

The officers – the deputy chief of the police department, Nurillo Usanov, and criminal investigator Jahongir Islamov, – took the activist to the department and beat him up for an hour.

Islamov threatened him with a needle, saying that he would gouge his eyes even if he was going to complain to the UN. “I am not going to have problems with my bosses because of you,” he threatened.

Usanov threatened him that if he would seek medical treatment in hospital he would not leave it alive. “I will issue orders that you will die there from an injection,” Usanov told Azimov.

When they tired themselves by beating up Azimov, they forced him to lift a chair over his head and hold it for an hour.

Azimov faced all these troubles for meeting Bahodir Choriyev, who had returned form political exile in the USA, at a Jizak cafe for few minutes.

Other Jizak-based activists – Bahtiyor Hamrayev, Said Kurbanov and Uktam Pardayev – were also assaulted or threatened on that day for meeting Choriyev and his colleague Dilorom Ishakova.

Two days after he was beaten up, Azimov felt heart pains and went to hospital. After examination, doctors reported to police that they had admitted a person with traces of violence, as they are supposed to.

Following this, a beat officer received the activist’s complaint addressed to the head of the department, Ilhom Hazratkulov. Azimov, paradoxically, had to complain to the chief of the department that his staff had beaten him up.

However, the activist has not yet received any response from the police chief. The Jizak Region prosecutor’s office, to which he complained about the assault the same day, has not answered yet either.

“What has to be done in such situation?” Azimov and his colleagues ask themselves. What should people do when police violate their rights instead of protecting them? Do they need to resist and face serious charges, such as attempting to overthrow the country’s constitutional system, or put up with the lack of freedom when they cannot even lunch with people blacklisted by the Uzbek authorities?