Uzbekistan: Convicts are beaten and forced to give false testimony

The facts of gross violation of human rights were again revealed by human rights activists. According to available information, convict Shomshod Ashyrbaev is beaten by officers and forced to give false testimony against other convicts.

On April 16, human rights activist Klara Sakharova and the leader of the initiative human rights group “Open line” Tatyana Dovlatova, together with the lawyer of the prisoner Ashyrbaev Shomshod and his mother Ashyrbaeva Dilbar, arrived at colony No.4 (Navoi city).

At 9 am, the head of the colony, Shodier Zhiyanov, and his deputies met them at the gate; they already knew about the visit. “Zhiyanov nodded at the request for appointment and went away,” Tatyana Dovlatova told ACCA journalist. “We waited for him for 40 minutes, then the operative came up. We presented the documents and asked him to introduce himself, but we received a boorish answer: I don’t have a last name. Get out of here!”

After a call from the oldest Uzbek human rights activist to the head of the Department for the Execution of Punishments under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhiyanov appeared and agreed to listen to the activists. At the meeting with the administration of the colony, Dilbar gave arguments in support of her son. They listened to her with a forced display of cold politeness.

In the meantime, the lawyer was denied direct communication with the prisoner, agreeing to a telephone conversation. After long squabbles, they nevertheless allowed the conversation in a special room.

The experienced lawyer checked the furniture and found a recording device with a flash card. He photographed the equipment, fixing the violation of the law.

“As soon as he pulled out the USB flash drive, operational officers burst into the room and began to accuse the lawyer of having carried it in,” says Dovlatova. “Shomshod was immediately taken away and never brought back. Then, for four hours, a man without a last name, operative Tokhir Radjabov, urged the lawyer not to contact us.”

In her opinion, the eavesdropping of one of the activists, mother or lawyer was carried out in advance, as evidenced by their morning meeting with the head at the gates of the colony.

The informal head of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, Elena Urlaeva, announced that a trial had begun in the case of burnt prisoners. Earlier, ACCA wrote about the tragedy: two of those in colony No.50 in Pskent district of Tashkent region died, and the survivors still don’t receive qualified medical care, they are completely deprived of social and legal support.

On April 14, 2022, at the direction of the judge, the human rights activist was denied access to the trial in the Sergeli District Criminal Court of the capital on the fact of a gas explosion and fire at a flour mill. Prior to the hearing, she held a picket in defense of 18 injured prisoners, demanding justice and fair compensation for them.

According to Urlaeva, the Prosecutor’s Office didn’t hold responsible for the life and health of prisoners the employees of the Department for the execution of sentences under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the heads of the colony and the enterprise. There are only two employees of the gas service in the dock.

In a widespread statement, Urlaeva reports that burnt former prisoners arrived at the court hearing, who, at the suggestion of the colony administration, were released ahead of schedule so as not to be responsible for the disability and damage to the health of prisoners. Some of them were forced under pressure to write receipts of no claims. Several more witnesses of the tragedy remain in custody, but they were not invited to the trial.

Alternative monitoring by human rights activists of violations of the rights of prisoners is carried out as far as possible, but only representatives of the state and pro-government structures visit penitentiary institutions without hindrance.

In March, ACCA noted the fact that few people saw the Ombudsman and representatives of public organizations in the colonies, although visitation statistics are kept. The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Oliy Majlis and her representatives made 120 monitoring visits in January-September 2021 to prevent torture in penitentiary institutions.

Feruza Eshmatova, who has held the post of Ombudsman since February 2021, stated that since then, “I have almost never seen cases of torture in places of execution of punishment.” According to her, none of the interlocutors, interviewed during the visits, had complaints of torture, beatings or moral pressure. There are no new data on the results of monitoring visits in the country. Real information from the colonies appear in the public space thanks to human rights activists.

In Uzbek online media, the topic of the situation with the rights of prisoners is practically not touched upon; information like this rarely appears: Rustam Kamalov, a regional representative of the Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in Tashkent region, reported ‘serious shortcomings in the maintenance of prisoners’ serving their sentences in colony-settlement No.43 of Bukinsky district. There is not a single line in the list about bullying and torture in the penitentiary system of the country; only the overcrowding in the bedrooms, the inconsistency of the dining room with sanitary and hygienic requirements, the emergency condition of the visiting rooms, and dilapidated furniture are mentioned.