Two police officers stand trial for torture in Sughd

Tajik authorities are continuing to take measures intended to tackle the practice of torture.

The Sughd prosecutor’s office has completed investigation into case of two police officers charged with torture of a detainee and the case has already moved to a court in Khujand, the capital of the Sughd province.

Muhammadrizo Khalifazoda, head of the department for overseeing implementation of law by police and drug control bodies at the Prosecutor-General’s Office, says that one of defendants is Khusrav Niyozqulov, the operative agent, criminal investigation squad at the Sughd police directorate.

In June this year, a 20-year-old M.Sh. was detained on suspicion of spreading porno DVDs by Niyozqulov and another police officer.  They reportedly held him in the police duty office the whole day.  The detainee was allegedly beaten in order to make him confess.  The results of the forensic medical examination have shown that his kidneys were badly beaten.

Criminal proceedings have been instated against the police officers under the provisions of Article 143.1 of the Tajikistan’s Penal Code – torture.

Judge Jourakhon Rahmon, who will preside over the trial, refrained from giving any comments on this case.

We will recall that the first verdict that found a police officer guilty of torture was passed by a court in the Yovon district, Khatlon province last September.

On September 12, 2012, the police inspector Masharaf Aliyev was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for torturing and ill-treating a 17 year old boy on April 27, 2012.  This was the first time an official was found guilty and sentenced under the new article in the Criminal Code criminalizing torture introduced in March 2012.