Uzbekistan: President relieved the state of responsibility for torture under Karimov
The state will not be responsible for the practice of torture under the regime of Karimov. This is the essence of Shavkat Mirziyoev’s speech at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Mirziyoev said that the country would soon ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. For joint work on these issues, it is planned to invite a Special Rapporteur on torture to Uzbekistan. Human rights activists have been seeking his visit since 2003.
The prisoners experienced the greatest torment during the rule of Karimov. After his death, the prison “Jaslyk”, which became synonymous with inhumanity, was liquidated. Former prisoners are still seeking rehabilitation and compensation for the suffering they endured following unjust sentences.
There are only two known cases of a fair judicial verdict. As ACCA previously wrote, former political prisoner Chuyan Mamatkulov won the case against the state, challenging his six-year stay in Jaslyk prison. On October 9, 2020, the Regional Civil Court of Kashkadarya made a decision to recover $ 5800 from the state.
In December last year, 35-year-old resident of Gubdin village of Karshi district (Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan), Elyor Tursunov, received compensation from the state for moral and material damage in the amount of $ 8,650 for illegal imprisonment and serving a prison term in Jaslyk prison, where he spent seven years.
Now, the President Mirziyoev intends to avoid payments to victims of torture and has absolved himself of responsibility for the crimes of his predecessor.
The most indicative example is when the Interdistrict Civil Court of Uchtepa district of Tashkent, on January 29, rejected the claim of Klara Sakharova against the Main Financial Department of the hokimiyat of Tashkent to recover the moral damage, which was caused to her brother, the deceased orientalist Andrei Kubatin, in the amount of $ 331,000. Thus, Klara tried to use the precedent of decisions in favor of Mamatkulov and Tursunov.
In December 2017, Andrei Kubatin was sentenced to 11 years in prison for treason. At the same time, the investigators of the National Security Service accused the specialist in Turkic philology of revealing state secrets about the country’s mineral resources and inciting ethnic hatred. Due to the falsification of evidence, in May 2018, Kubatin’s term was reduced to five years. After numerous international protests and clear evidence of the fabrication of his case, he was acquitted on September 26, 2019. He spent two years and five months in the detention center of the National Security Service (now the State Security Service) and was tortured all this time.
The current situation with torture in penitentiary institutions is still not in favor of the prisoners. With the help of activists, ACCA has repeatedly raised the topic of bullying and violence in the colonies. The Ministry of Internal Affairs couldn’t refute the facts and accused the human rights portal of undermining the prestige of the department.
Several cases of torture have found their way into public space, and Uzbek courts have been forced to pass sentences. The condition of people with AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis, and other diseases is still unknown.
