Timur Isakov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, who built a catering point of sale for a Kazakh entrepreneur, not only didn’t receive money for his work, but was also tortured by the police.
According to the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights (KIBHR), Timur Isakov arrived in Almaty for work. He had all the necessary documents, according to the legislation of Kazakhstan – a work permit, medical insurance, etc.
Isakov stayed at the hostel. It was the owner of the hostel, a certain Murat Primbetov, who hired him to build a catering point of sale. When the work was completed, Primbetov refused to pay money for it, and even took Isakov’s passport.
Naively hoping that everyone is equal before the law in Kazakhstan, Isakov called the police. But instead of help and support from law enforcement officers, he received something completely different.
The police took Isakov to the police department of Auezov district, where Primbetov was already waiting for them. He said that he handed over Isakov’s passport to ‘his brother, the detective’.
After that, the police took Isakov to the fifth floor and there, in one of the offices, they began to beat and strangle him. Isakov lost consciousness. He came to himself on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back. Seeing that he had regained consciousness, the police began to beat him again. First they beat him with an iron ruler, and then they committed an act of violence with a police baton.
Law enforcement officers demanded that Isakov confess to the crime. According to them, Primbetov wrote a statement to his employee that he allegedly stole money from one of the hostel guests. When Isakov refused to sign anything, a protocol was drawn up on him regarding the violation of the terms of registration, and an hour later the police already had a court decision on the expulsion of the citizen of Uzbekistan from the country. While communicating with the police, Isakov received such injuries that he had to be hospitalized.
The next day, Isakov went straight from the hospital to the National Security Committee. A case was opened, which was then transferred to the Department of the Anti-Corruption Agency. Isakov was recognized as a victim, but it didn’t go beyond this.
The Consulate General of Uzbekistan twice applied for a thorough investigation into this incident. However, during the investigation, it turned out that on the day Isakov was beaten, the video surveillance cameras in the police building were not working, and the policemen told the investigator that they hadn’t tortured the detainee. Since then, Isakov has been unsuccessfully trying to achieve justice. According to him, he was told directly in the Anti-Corruption Agency that he wouldn’t achieve anything, since everyone would believe not him, but the police officers.
A similar point of view is shared by the KIBHR’s lawyer Anna Solodova. In her opinion, there is no sense for Isakov to seek the truth in Kazakhstan, and he should directly apply to the UN Committee against Torture.
