Uzbekistan: Interior Ministry officers beat a journalist in Tashkent

On the night of October 23, officers of the patrol and guard service beat Alisher Ruziohunov (a correspondent for the online publication Kun.uz) ​​with truncheons, accusing him of running-down a man.

“I passed the crossroad at night on October 23,” the journalist describes the situation. “When crossing the crossroad, the traffic police inspector stopped another car. The car stopped in the second lane of the road, next to the inspector’s car, standing on the side of the road. The inspector walked from the third lane to the driver’s door. I saw traffic and the situation on the road and barely got between the third and fourth lanes. And the inspector’s hand touched the right fender of my car.”

Ruziohunov assessed the situation unambiguously and asked the inspector five times to register the violation. Six police officers, who surrounded him, began to mock and claim that he had knocked the man down. After the journalist called the State Security and Traffic Inspectorate, his phone was taken away, and one of the officers continued the conversation. At that moment, another masked inspector struck with utmost effort with a truncheon in his stomach.

The journalist was stricken again, after that he crumpled in severe pain. The inspectors began to laugh out loudly, considering it a play. According to the journalist, someone said “He is an actor. Don’t touch him! He will come to his senses now.” After 10 minutes, the inspector, who took away the smartphone, told his colleagues that the driver was a journalist. And then, all together began to ask for forgiveness.

Fearing publicity, the City Department of Internal Affairs of Tashkent reported that it was studying the situation. Citizens, bloggers and journalists were asked not to interfere with the work of law enforcement agencies and not distort the situation on social networks.

Komil Allamzhonov (head of the Public Fund for Support and Development of National Mass Media) reacted to the beating, promising to contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to conduct an internal investigation. He and the head of the Agency for Information and Mass Communications Asadjon Khodjaev, who spoke at the OSCE conference, could not say anything about the dozens of attacks on journalists and bloggers since the beginning of the year.

At the moment of writing this material, the editorial office of Kun.uz has not reacted to the incident.