On the occasion of the International Day of Torture Victims International Human Rights Association “Fiery Hearts Club” condemns a continuing wide practice of torture in Uzbekistan.

If in 2002 United Nations Special Rapporteur Mr. Theo van Boven, having visited Uzbekistan, characterized the practice of torture in the criminal justice system of this country as systemic, today in 12 years since then torture is still endemic and widespread.

Torture and similar forms of inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment and punishment in Uzbekistan takes place mainly in the criminal justice system. The systemic character of torture and similar ill-treatment has been established by international experts many times.

Despite that the Uzbek authorities keep denying the practice of torture and claim that torture is merely banned in Uzbekistan and each complaint involving torture is thoroughly investigated. Torture begins from the very first hours of arrest and continue throughout pre-trial investigation to coerce the arrested person provide self-incriminating testimonies.

Sometimes the Uzbek law enforcement bodies arrest a person for allegedly committing an administrative offence and detain him for 15 days during which they trump a criminal case against that person and subject him to torture to extract necessary confessions from him. In criminal charges involving murder, rape, robbery and membership in banned religious extremist groups the Uzbek law enforcements officers usually arrest the suspects first under trumped up administrative offence charges and lock them up for 15 days as an administrative punishment. In doing so the law enforcement officers often rely on the help of their agents or people who cooperate with law enforcement bodies, sometimes prostitutes.

The persons arrested under trumped up administrative offence cases do not have access to lawyers and are isolated. They are subjected to torture in order to extract necessary confessions from them. The same method is widely applied to ex-convicts when they leave prisons and are considered by the law enforcement bodies as persons prone to commit a repeat crime. Similar method is also applied to political prisoners who include imprisoned representatives of the civil society and religious prisoners. Family members of those categories of torture victims are also often subjected to psychological pressure and threats by the law enforcement officers.

Despite official statements Uzbekistan lacks effective national mechanisms of investigating torture and similar ill-treatment. Those law enforcement officers whose names appear in the complaints of torture victims are not dismissed from their offices but remain in charge and sometimes even get promoted. The country also lacks a national rehabilitation and compensation system for torture victims. Therefore most cases of torture and similar ill-treatment never reach true investigations and remain hidden from the public.

For some categories of convicts torture and similar ill-treatment continue not only during the pre-trial investigation period but also after the conviction and when the convict is transferred to prison. The penitentiary system of Uzbekistan remains absolutely closed for independent and international observers. Even though since 2004 the Uzbek government has been claiming that it had opened its penitentiary system for all independent and international observers according to the new rules of visiting prisons in reality no one has seen those new rules and such claims can’t be true.

According to ex convicts and torture victims torture and similar ill-treatment in the penitentiary system of Uzbekistan is inflicted by either law enforcement officers, representatives of the prison administration or those inmates who cooperate with the administration and take orders from them (called “lokhmach” in the prison jargon). Very often the Uzbek authorities use implicit forms of torture and ill-treatment against such groups of inmates – for instance, placing them together with other inmates who have infectious diseases like AIDs, TB, depriving them of visits by the family members, and involving them in exploitative or degrading types of labour in the prison facility.

In most cases of political prisoners (for instance, imprisoned civil society activists and religious prisoners) the prison authorities place them into a solitary confinement and charged them with disobeying prison internal rules on purpose in order to prolong his imprisonment and keep him in prison a longer period. This is a common method the Uzbek authorities “neutralize” these categories of prisoners and keep them in prison for lengthy periods. Many well-known cases of other Uzbek human rights activists who are kept in prison for lengthy periods have been well studied and reported. By putting the inmate to a solitary confinement and charging with disobeying prison internal rules the Uzbek authorities are also blocking his eligibility for annual amnesty acts. Under the existing Uzbek legislation the inmates who have been put to a solitary confinement and charged with violating prison internal rules are not eligible for annual amnesty acts.

The cases of prolongation of already existing prison sentences under trumped up new criminal cases based on the charges of disobeying prison internal rules is almost unstudied – because the pre-trial investigations and court hearings take place swiftly in several weeks, most of the times inside prison facilities, inmates and their family members don’t have often enough time to hire the lawyers of their own choice. The court hearings on such new criminal cases take place inside prison facilities which makes it almost impossible for the family members and independent observers to attend the trial. In most cases the inmates, their lawyers and family members do not have access to the documents of the new trumped up criminal cases, including the final sentences on prolongation of prison terms.

Charges of violation of the internal rules of enforcement agencies under Art. 221 of the Criminal Code apply in just a few days before the announcement of the annual act of amnesty, while the colony often relies on pre- existing custom, a secret list of prisoners often deflated them the central apparatus of the Ministry of the Interior and the National Security Service, the use to which the amnesty or exemption for which the end of a sentence is not desirable. Within a few days, and sometimes within one day against “undesirable prisoner” fabricate violations of internal regime in the colonies. In falsification violations of the content of the “undesirable prisoners” in the course they go by all means, including torture in the penal colony prison, making it impossible to see with friends and family, and the testimony of provocation “obedient” colony administration groups of prisoners and members of the prison administration.

Fabrication of new criminal cases against “undesirable prisoner” in prison slang Uzbekistan originally called “terror” . In this process the prisoner is provided a lawyer, his family does not know that in fact already is preparing for a new criminal case against a prisoner and prolong its life, the prisoner and his family denied the opportunity to get acquainted with the official documents and decisions of the prison administration, recognizing its offender detention regime in the colony. As a result, the prisoner will be a repeat infringer internal regime colony and also amnesty, also denied these opportunities to facilitate his sentence as “parole” and “replacement of punishment for corrective work”.

Recognition violator prisoner detention regime subsequently gives rise to a new criminal case under Art. 221 of the Criminal Code and the extension of his sentence. The above process passes prosecutorial oversight – the prosecutor’s office as an independent state authority responsible for the supervision of law only in such processes completely blind eye to gross violations of the rights of prisoners and rigging a new criminal case against him and appears only in the hearings on the new criminal case under Art. 221. Penal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as the fundamental law governing the rights and obligations of a prisoner deprived of effective mechanisms to effectively prevent and check the above cases of gross violations of the rights of prisoners in the country.

It should be mentioned that cases of prolongation of prison terms under article 221 of the Uzbek Criminal Code is not well studied. There are several reasons to that. First, pre-trial investigation and court hearings on such cases take place in a record high speed which makes it difficult for convicts and their families to invite lawyers of their own choice to the case. Second, pre-trial investigation and court hearings on such cases take place inside prison facilities which creates substantial problems with a proper access for family members and lawyers. Family members of the convict, his / her lawyer of own choice do not have access a proper access to the case documents, sometimes including the court sentence on a criminal case under article 221.

We should also specifically mention the cases of torture and similar ill-treatment against those Uzbek asylum seekers who are detained abroad on the extradition requests of the Uzbekistani law enforcement agencies and sent back to Uzbekistan. Sometimes Uzbek law enforcement officers travel abroad to the countries of temporary residence of Uzbek asylum seekers to arrest them and bring back to Uzbekistan.

The Uzbek secret services have been actively involved in either direct arrests and bringing back of Uzbek asylum seekers or initiating their arrests and extradition to Uzbekistan in such countries as Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. Sometimes the Uzbek secret services act in the Uzbek asylum seekers or migrants’ communities abroad through their own informants and undercover agents. Most Uzbek asylum seekers forcedly brought back to Uzbekistan face trumped up criminal cases, illegal arrests, torture and lengthy imprisonment.

As the most important measures in combating torture and similar ill-treatment in Uzbekistan we call on the Uzbek government to take the following steps:

– Publicly condemn practice of torture in criminal justice system by the high-profile government officials and leaders of the country so that it sends a signal and warning that torture is not tolerated and perpetrators would inevitably be punished;

– Ratify the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and create an independent national body responsible for investigation of complaints involving torture and similar ill-treatment;

– Recognizing the competence of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) under articles 21 and 22 of the UN Convention Against Torture (the CAT’s competence to accept and consider individual communications and communications from participating states);

– Establishing effective national mechanism of recognition, rehabilitation and compensation for torture victims in Uzbekistan;

– Inviting the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Torture to do a take a follow-up visit to Uzbekistan;

– Reconsideration of criminal cases and court decisions on the cases of all political prisoners – imprisoned representatives of the Uzbek civil society and religious prisoners (persons convicted of articles 156, 159, 216, 244, 244-1, 244-2 and others of the Uzbek Criminal Code) with a special attention to allegations of torture and similar ill-treatment during pre-trial investigation and court hearings;

– Liberalization of existing rules and creation of transparent, open and accessible penitentiary system in Uzbekistan for providing open visits and monitoring of the prison situation by the representatives of the human rights NGOs, international organizations and journalists.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva,

Head of International Human Rights Association
“Fiery Hearts Club”

June 26, 2014

Paris, France