On May 19, a meeting of a human rights activist from the initiative group “Open line” Gulbahor Islamova with employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Department in Yunusabad district of Tashkent ended with beatings, bites and a scuffle.
“In a state of shock, hearing insults in prostitution, the activist even thought to throw herself out of the third floor window,” Tatiana Dovlatova, leader of the group, told the ACCA journalist. Due to the psychological state of Gulbahor, several days passed before the women decided to make public the fact of the aggression of people in uniform.
Under the pretext of resolving a private property dispute, Gulbahor was summoned by the deputy chief for political affairs Jahongir Isroilov to the District Department of Internal Affairs. In the office, however, she was required to write an explanatory note about three complaints to the President’s virtual reception room, one of which described the actions of a subordinate of this head. During a phone call, a certain Timur Sabirov called the activist and her comrades-in-arms blackmailer prostitutes “who are standing near the Senate with complaints”.
Gulbahor announced the available recording of this conversation. From the checkpoint, her friend Sevara Gafurova brought a smartphone that had been left at the request of the guards. At that time, Sabirov continued to sling mud at the activist, and she advised the officer to readdress the bad words to his wife. The furious Sabirov ran up to the woman and punched her in the liver. The blow doubled her up, but Gulbahor was able to turn on the device and began filming what was happening. There were no cameras in the office.
“Sabirov is clearly lower in rank than his boss, but he ordered Isroilov to take away her phone,” says Dovlatova. “Jahongir Isroilov rushed after Islamova and began to wring her right hand. When he couldn’t snatch the phone out of her hand, he bent down and bit her hand just below the elbow. Gulbahor unclenched her hand in pain. Taking the phone, Isroilov pushed Gulbahor on the stairs with force. She could hardly remain standing not to fall head over heels.
The next day, Islamova wrote the statement concerning the beating to the City Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Human rights defenders continue to wait for their answer. After the incident, the smartphone wasn’t returned to her, Islamova called 102 and stated this. She took her smartphone only on May 24. All photos and videos were deleted from the device’s memory.
On May 25, the Uzbek media published information about violence against the inmates of the orphanage in the same Yunusabad District Department of Internal Affairs. They tried to get an appointment at the Cabinet of Ministers on the morning of May 22. At the time of filing the application, they filmed the process. Then an employee of the Cabinet of Ministers, Sherzod Salimov, began to insult people. As a result, a fight broke out between him and the inmates of the orphanage. Then the law enforcement officers wrung their arms and took them away. They were taken to the police station office, where they were beaten.
The victims claimed that the officers of the Yunusabad District Department of Internal Affairs “treated them inhumanly”. Following the results of an internal investigation, the press service of the Internal Affairs Directorate of Tashkent city accused the journalists of misrepresentation of information for the sake of likes, but had to admit the fact of calling an ambulance to the beaten protesters.
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