KHUJAND, July 27, 2013, Asia-Plus — The trial of Sunatullo Rizoyev and Sadriddin Toshev, two prison inmates who were transferred to Khujand from Dushanbe last November, was adjourned on July 26 until July 30.
“The judge ordered the adjournment after Raufkhon Aliyev, the prosecutor in the trial, said that he need time to familiarize himself with case materials,” the inmates’ defense lawyer, Fayzinisso Vohidova, told Asia-Plus n an interview.
According to her, she asked the judge to move consideration of the case to the building of the Khujand city court, but the judge said that he would consider her application on Tuesday.
The trail that is being held at the Khujand pretrial detention facility began on July 25.
Rizoyev and Toshev reportedly face charges of actions disorganizing the work of a penitentiary institution committed by persons convicted of a serious crime or especially serious crimes, and false denunciation.
We will recall that Rizoyev and Toshev were among some 50 prisoners who were transferred from two prison facilities in Dushanbe to a prison in Khujand last November.
The prisoners shot videos, recorded them on a mobile phone and sent to their relatives. The inmates exhibit severe bruises on their bodies, claiming they were beaten with rubber batons by prison guards.
Tajikistan”s nongovernmental organization Coalition against Torture issued a statement last November demanding investigations into the alleged mass beatings of prison inmates. According to the rights group, prison guards brutally beat at least 50 inmates after their transfer from Dushanbe prison facilities to a prison labor camp in the northern city of Khujand in early November 2012.
The activists say that at least four of the beaten prisoners were witnesses in the September death of an inmate that has received heavy media coverage. The statement lists six other suspicious deaths in custody.
