Kayum Ortikov, a former security officer of the British Embassy in Tashkent was granted asylum in America, and on 20 February 2014 he left the Ukraine, where he had to reside with his family for more than two years due to persecution in Uzbekistan.

According to Mokhira Ortikova, Kayum Ortikov’s wife, they arrived in the city of Harrisburg on the night of February 20, where a house was provided for their family for residence in the United States (Harrisburg is the capital of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Dauphin – Jarayon’s note).

“In Harrisburg, we were met by a guy named Zharrid and Mansur aka (aka, elder brother, is an Uzbek polite form of address). The latter appeared to be from Uzbekistan, too. We were very glad to be met by our compatriot. At 11 p.m., they took us to our home. A three-bedroom house was cozy, clean, and we liked it a lot. Everything was prepared in the house, including food products and linens.

“On February 21 at dawn, our family woke up in a new house. It was our first morning in Harrisburg. We could not wait to see the surroundings of the city. Soon it began to dawn, and we saw a white glacier from the bedroom window; there were beautiful houses on the other side of the glacier. Then gulls began circling over the icy river. When it was broad daylight, we found out that the Susquehanna River is running not far from our neighborhood and is covered with ice in the winter.

“The landscape we observed was fantastic. Especially during the sunrise and sunset, the sun’s rays are reflected from small crystals of ice that covered the river. All this gave us a spiritual calm. This natural environment is very useful for physical and psychological condition of my husband,” Mokhira Ortikova told Jarayon about her first pleasant experiences in the U.S.

Last October, the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva reviewed the report of the delegation of Uzbekistan on implementation of the UN Convention against Torture. Then the Uzbek authorities, while responding to the question of international experts of the Committee about Kayum Ortikov’s case, stated that this person is not a victim of tortures, and completely ignored his case.

However, Mokhira Ortikova says that the doctors, who examined Kayum Ortikov in the Ukraine, recognized him as a victim of tortures. She also said that Kayum Ortikov was accompanied by a clinical psychologist on the way from Ukraine to the United States, who watched his psychological state in the plane every 30 minutes to be ready to provide necessary assistance if need be.

“Last October, my husband underwent a medical examination, after which we were informed that he would be accompanied by a psychologist on the way to the U.S.A. On February 20, psychologist Irina Poklad arrived in Borispol international airport to accompany us to Harrisburg. Peace of mind was restored due to Irina’s presence, we are very grateful to her for attention and assistance she provided to us,” said Mokhira Ortikova.

These words of Kayum Ortikov’s wife once again prove the falsity of the statements of the Uzbek delegation headed by Akmal Saidov, who in Geneva denied existence of brutal tortures of prisoners in Uzbekistan, in particular the use of torture against Kayum Ortikov.

Steve Swerdlow, a representative of Human Rights Watch international human rights organization in Central Asia, who actively participated in the process of releasing Kayum Ortikov from prison and his resettlement in a third country, told Jarayon that Ortikov suffers post-traumatic stress and syndrome.

“It has been stated more than by one doctor that Kayum Ortikov has all these due to tortures he suffered for several years while being imprisoned in Uzbekistan. He still needs significant humanitarian assistance and medical examination. I can say on behalf of Human Rights Watch that we find evidences of Kayum Ortikov about tortures not only compelling, but also very well-founded. They are very identical to practices of tortures, especially in cases of political prisoners which we have been studying for years in Uzbekistan,” said Steve Swerdlow.

During his detention and after his release, Mokhira Ortikova repeatedly appealed to the British authorities with a request to help her husband since his conviction was directly related to his work at the British Embassy in Tashkent. However, the authorities of that country have ignored the matter of Kayum Ortikov as well as all his wife’s appeals.

Commenting on the attitude of the British authorities to Kayum Ortikov’s case, Steve Swerdlow said that all the time, when he dealt with the case, he observed not only courage of the Ortikovs, but also passivity of the British side.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly appealed to the British authorities raising various issues in connection with this case. First, why did the British Embassy in Tashkent not actively raise the question of release of this man for a long time? Secondly, why was there such a bureaucratic and cold attitude toward the family when the family was in the Ukraine and badly needed serious humanitarian assistance? Thirdly, why was a possibility of their relocation and obtaining refugee status in the UK not considered, when his imprisonment was directly related to his association with the British Embassy?

Unfortunately, we have not received answers for these questions. Our organization tried to get more information from the British authorities by means of meetings, emails as well as appeals to the international press. We still find it difficult to understand why the UK authorities do not pay more attention to this matter. We continue to think and assume that it is important to seriously investigate the matter for the sake of the Ortikovs, for future and current victims of breach of law in Uzbekistan as well as for the British-Uzbek relations,” the representative of Human Rights Watch in Central Asia told Jarayon.

Forty-four-year-old Ortikov, a former military man, worked as a deputy military commandant in Chirchiq and Karshi garrisons.

After leaving the reserve for health reasons, Ortikov was hired as a guard by the security service of the British Embassy in Tashkent, and he worked in the English diplomatic service from 2003 to February 2009.

In 2009, Ortikov was sentenced to six years in prison in Uzbekistan on trumped-up charges of human trafficking. It is worth noting that Kayum Ortikov’s guilt was not proven in the court.

Over the next nine months after the verdict, Ortikov was illegally detained in the remand prison of Tashkent prison, and none of his family members could visit him.

In an investigative isolation ward of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan, they brutally tortured him to force him to confess that he spied for Britain during his work at the British Embassy. Uzbek security officers also demanded that Kayum Ortikova slander his colleagues, citizens of Uzbekistan, who also worked at the British and the United States Embassies in Tashkent.

Mokhira Ortikova was forced to hire a lawyer to defend her husband, who found out during his visits that his client was brutally tortured by SNB officers in Tashkent prison.

And only thanks to the active position of Mokhira Ortikova, the world could learn about horrors in Uzbekistan prisons. While Ortikov was in prison, his wife constantly told local and international human rights defenders as well as independent journalists about violence and tortures her husband experienced in prison.

In 2011, Kayum Ortikova was released on conditional early discharge. However, even after his release from prison, the Uzbek security services did not stop pursuing him. As a result, in 2012 the Ortikovs decided to leave Uzbekistan, and they moved to Ukraine, and two years later they managed to leave for the U.S.A.

Mubina SAFAROVA