Police officer faces charge of power abuse causing death of 50-year-old man

The Prosecutor-General’s Office has instituted criminal proceedings against I. Idiyev, an officer of the Interior Ministry’s office in the Dousti district of the Khatlon province under the provisions of Article 316 (3) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – excess of powers.  Th proceedings have been instituted within the framework of the criminal proceedings instituted over the death of 50-year-old resident of the Shahritous district (Khatlon province) Tolibjon Doustov; the men died after being detained by officers of the Dousti police department. 
 
The Prosecutor-General’s Office has instituted criminal proceedings against Idiyev for excess of powers, while Doustov’s relatives were insisting on instituting criminal proceedings against the police officer for torture.  
 
Recall, Tolibjon Doustov died on July 26 this year after being detained by police officers.  According to an official version, he died of heart attack.  Meanwhile, Doustov’s relatives insist that it was a violent death.  
 
Tolibjon Doustov was reportedly detained by police officers in a café in the administrative center of the Shahritous district on July 26.  Several hours later, his relatives found him dead in a hospital in the Qubodiyon district of Khatlon province.   
 
Doustov’s mother, Mehri Davlatova, says her son was detained by police officers on July 26, a day after he celebrated his 50th anniversary.  “His friend phoned us and said that policemen arrested Tolibjon.  According to him, they were sitting in a café when police officers came and took Tolibjon with them.  We immediately applied to the police stations in Shahritous and Qubodiyon districts but we did not found him there.  Later on, we were informed that he is in a hospital in the Qubodiyon district.  When we came there he was already dead.  We were told that he was detained by officers of the police station in the Dousti district,” said Mehri Davlatova.  
 
She is sure that her son died after being beaten by police officers.  “We think police officers beat him on the way to the police station and when they took him to the hospital in Qubodiyon, he was already dead,” the woman said.  
 
According to the Qubodiyon local law enforcement authorities, Tolibjon Doustov was arrested by three officers of the drug trafficking department at the Interior Ministry’s office for the Dousti district on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking.  He reportedly died of heart attack that happened on the way to the police department. 
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