Torture in Central Asia: time to break the vicious circle!

Almaty, Bishkek, Brussels, Dushanbe, Paris, Vienna, Warsaw: 26 June 2019

One night in July 2018 police officers drove up to Shahboz Ahmadov’s house in the southern Yavan district of Tajikistan and instructed the young man to accompany them to the local police station to help them solve a crime. But when they arrived they reportedly took him to an office, closed the door, accused him of injuring a person with a knife, kicked and beat him and gave him electric shocks until he confessed. After holding Shahboz Ahmadov in police detention for several days the victim of the stabbing told the officers that Shaboz was not the perpetrator. The officers let him go but warned him to keep silent about the torture. But Shahboz went for a forensic medical examination and filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office. Initially, an investigation was opened and two of the alleged perpetrators were charged. But the investigation was flawed and prosecutors closed the case. The perpetrators have not been punished and Shahboz has not obtained justice for his suffering.