30 March
2013 relatives of Umid Akhmedov (born 1975) were handed his body for urgent burial
and took a written signed statement on non-disclosure of information about the
injuries on the body of the diseased. They were prohibited to undertake forensic
medical examination of the body. The official cause of death relatives are
concealing and refusing to communicate with human rights defenders.
15 March
2013 Umid Akhmedov was taken into custody. He used to work in the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, in the department of immoral behaviour and recruitment of
people with a purpose of exploitation. Within the competence of the department was
the investigation of trafficking cases (the original name of the department is:
одамлардан
фойдаланиш учун уларни ёллаш хамда одоб-ахлок хукукларини бузилишига карши булим). He was charged under Article 210 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan (receipt
of a bribe).
According
to a witness, the murdered Umid Akhmedov had a deep cutting wound in the area
of his neck and haematomas all over his body; he was disfigured beyond
recognition. Under torture they were trying to extract from him evidence
against a high ranking official in the government. The name of the latter our
source is not disclosing due to security considerations. All attempts to obtain
more detailed information on Umid Akhmedov’s case have failed so far, which is
not uncommon under the current regime.
According
to the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, extrajudicial executions
are committed on a regular basis in Uzbekistan, but the public does not have
access to the information of that kind. It is impossible to investigate such
cases. Relatives of the victims are usually subjected to threats and are afraid
of referring to lawyers and human rights defenders, their freedom of movement
is restricted, they are kept under total control for a long time.
