Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
85
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
party’s report acknowledged problems encountered in
the implementation of Covenant rights and
commended the State party for undertaking the
process of bringing its legislation into harmony with
its international obligations. The Committee,
however, deplored the State party’s refusal to reveal
the number of persons who have been executed or
condemned to death, and the grounds for their
conviction.”
The Committee was also “gravely concerned
about consistent allegations of widespread torture by
law enforcement officials”, in particular in order to
extract confessions, and the limited number of
investigations into such allegations. It recommended
that “the State party should ensure that all such
allegations were properly investigated and the persons
responsible prosecuted. ... Free access to lawyers,
doctors and family members should be guaranteed
immediately after the arrest and during all stages of
detention. The State party must ensure that no one is
compelled to testify against himself or herself or to
confess guilt.” Although the Committee commended
the Uzbek government for signing an agreement with
the International Committee of the Red Cross granting
the latter access to all detention facilities, it expressed
its continued concern “about conditions in detention
centres and penal institutions, particularly the
extremely poor living conditions on death row...and
numerous allegations of deaths in prisons and the
return of marked and bruised corpses to the families
of detainees.” The Committee urged the State party to
“ensure that all persons deprived of their liberty were
treated with humanity and respect for their dignity...
and to institute an independent system of monitoring
and checking all places of detention and penal
institutions on a regular basis with the purpose of
preventing torture and other abuses of power by law
enforcement officials.”
Possible prisoners of conscience
Detention of relatives and associates of the exiled
leader of the banned opposition Erk party,
Muhammad Salih
(update to AI Index: EUR 01/01/00, EUR 01/03/00 and
EUR 01/001/2001)
On 4 January Mamadali Makhmudov was transferred
from the hospital wing of Tashkent prison to a strict
regime prison colony (KIN 64/46) in Navoy, some
500 km southwest of Tashkent in Bukhara Region,
amid concern that he had not recovered sufficiently to
withstand the conditions of detention in Navoy. Three
months later he was back in the hospital wing of
Tashkent prison, reportedly after an ICRC delegation
had visited the Navoy prison colony. Mamadali
Makhmudov’s family were not informed of his
transfer until May and were at first not granted a visit
or allowed to give him parcels. On 16 June Mamadali
Makhmudov was transferred to the strict regime
colony (UYU 64/6) in Chirchik, some 30 km outside
Tashkent. His health was reported to be still not
strong: he continued to have heart problems, he had
difficulty breathing and was said to be very thin.
However, conditions of detention in Chirchik were
said to be better than in Navoy. In a letter to President
Karimov, written from his hospital bed, Mamadali
Makhmudov had asked to be transferred to Chirchik
because of his failing health so as to be closer to his
family (and also because the climate was milder).
Mukhammad Bekzhon continued to serve his
sentence in the strict regime prison colony in Navoy
(KIN 64/46). Relatives who visited him were alarmed
at his condition; he was reportedly walking on
crutches and looked emaciated.
Komil Bekzhon was kept in a different colony in
Navoy, and Rashik Bekzhon was serving his sentence
in a strict regime prison colony in Kyzyltepa, also in
Bukhara Region. There were reports that Rashid
Bekzhon had lost vision in one eye as a result of
torture. Relatives said that the three brothers had not
complained about their conditions of detention
because they were afraid of repercussions.
Arbitrary arrest of Rahima Akhmadalieva
and her daughter Odina Mahsudova
Officers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD)
detained 39-year-old Rahima Akhmadalieva on 17
March after searching her family’s Tashkent home
without a warrant. They wanted to question her about
the
whereabouts
of
her
husband,
Ruhiddin
Fahruddinov, an independent imam, who is wanted on
allegedly fabricated charges of "Wahhabism".
On 20 March her 19-year-old daughter Odina
Makhsudova came to look for her at the MVD, and
was also detained. She reported that she and her
mother were taken to a basement cell, where a group
of officers threatened them and accused them of being
"Wahhabis" and relatives of a criminal. Odina
Makhsudova said her mother looked gaunt and
appeared to have lost weight; she had allegedly been
prevented from sleeping to force her to reveal her
husband's whereabouts. Odina Makhsudova insisted
that her mother did not know where Ruhiddin
Fahruddinov was. The officers forcibly removed the
women's hijabs (headscarves worn by pious Muslim
women). They forced Odina Makhsudova to promise
that she would stop wearing a hijab and stop praying.
They then took her to a corridor and made her watch
guards dragging a man out of a cell and beating him
with rubber truncheons. She said his feet were covered
in bruises, he was unable to walk and his nose
appeared to have been broken. The officers apparently
insulted and swore at her, and said her mother would
be sent to prison because she was the mother of
"Wahhabis". They threatened to take her six-year-old
sister and three-year-old brother to an orphanage to
prevent them from becoming "Wahhabis". They
reportedly also forced her to curse her mother to her
face, threatening to torture her if she did not. She
believed this was intended to put further pressure on
her mother. Odina Makhsudova was then released, on
condition that she keep silent about what had
happened, and help to find her father. For some days