Uzbekistan: blogger accused the Ministry of Internal Affairs of torture

At the trial on March 11, the blogger Otabek Sattoriy accused the Ministry of Internal Affairs of cold torture in the pre-trial detention center and fabricating testimony. Since the arrest in January, which the ACCA previously wrote about, the security forces, in collusion with the local authorities, have organized a campaign to find those whom Sattoriy had “offended”. From the closest circle of Sattoriy, the ACCA learned that the food parcels, which reached the defendant, had been greatly reduced in weight, and his relatives didn’t manage to get a meeting with him.

As a result of the preliminary investigation by the beginning of the trial, the number of “criminal episodes” increased from three to eight. The accusations were brought against the blogger after the testimony of the director of the local market, four employees of enterprises supplying gas to the population, the head of the administration of Termez, the head of the personnel department of the regional branch of the Republican Specialized Scientific and Practical Medical Center, as well as a former employee of the registry office. All of them accused Otabek of extortion and posting defaming them videos on the Internet.

The head of the company-builder accused the defendant that he had sought damages to his mother and sister, whose houses were demolished in the interests of the investors. The “victim” in this case was the hokim of Termez. Allegedly, he “paid” the amount; nevertheless, it was provided by law. The Investigative Department of the Regional Internal Affairs Directorate stood up for the official, initiating a criminal case against Sattoriy as a malicious recidivist with the prospect of a 15-year sentence.

Earlier, ACCA wrote about a special message from the Prosecutor General’s Office. The City Criminal Court of Termez found the blogger Otabek Sattoriy guilty under the articles: 40 (“Slander”), 41 (“Insult”), 202-2 (“Dissemination of false information”) of the Administrative Code. He was punished with a $ 940 fine.

The Prosecutor General’s Office reported that the reason for this punishment was the spread of false information on social networks in January, consisting of “insults and slander” against employees of the coal warehouse “Denau” and the zoo of Termez about embezzlement of property and “other illegal actions”. At the same time, the lawyers didn’t want to comment on violations during detention and closed court hearings, implying the blogger’s status as a particularly dangerous criminal. The question about the unhurried filing of a lawsuit by the “victims”, who had suffered from Sattoriy, also hung in midair.

According to an ACCA source, more than 50 of the blogger’s fellow countrymen arrived at the trial, where the National Guard soldiers were waiting for them. The residents were extremely outraged by the injustice, the reason for which was the denunciations of people who were completely disrespected in the region.

An official from Tashkent tried to let off the steam of popular discontent by allowing to make a video during the trial. After the break, filming was prohibited. Then the story about the first part of the meeting appeared on the Internet.

Otabek indignantly commented on the course of the case, “I never extorted anything from anyone. The case was fabricated from beginning to end. This story began at the instigation of the regional administration,” the blogger said. He managed to inform journalists about his health problems and the outrages at the investigative isolation ward in February; he was “kept in a cold cell in one thin T-shirt for 20 days”.

Otabek was arrested in January after the statement from the market director. The other denunciations came in February. A lawyer flew from Tashkent a day before the trial and was denied additional time to familiarize himself with the documents of the investigation, but the dubious arguments of the prosecution already give him food for thought that the case was ordered. To the lawyer’s question, one of the witnesses replied that the hokim of Termez summoned him and demanded “to solve this problem”.

The hokim of Surkhandarya region, Tura Bobolov, insulted by Internet attacks from Sattoriy, expressed his interest in “sending the blogger to prison” in an interview with Effect.uz. Later, he restrained his indignation, adding that “it would be great if the law enforcement agencies mitigate the punishment and help him”.

According to colleagues from the independent online media “Asiaterra”, not only the regional hokim and his subordinates are behind the blogger’s arrest. The reason was different. Sattoriy encroached on “the holy of holies”; he began to oppose the seizure of land in favor of commercial structures, which were affiliated with the President Mirziyoev.

We are talking about the seizure of land in Surkhandarya region for Surxon Cotton Textile Cluster, which was created in December 2020. The company received 22,400 hectares of land taken from 475 farmers. In turn, it belongs to Petromaruz Limited, owned by Senator Murtazo Rakhmatov, who was recently appointed the head of the newly created Association of Cotton Textile Clusters. SCTC Director is Saidkul Arabov, former chairman of the State Committee for Land Resources, Geodesy, Cartography and State Cadaster.

The next court session will take place on March 17.