QURGHON TEPPA, September 28, 2011 Asia-Plus — The public association, Human Rights Center, has organized workshops for practicing defense lawyers from Khatlon province in the cities of Qurghon Teppa and Kulob this week in the framework of the project, Combating Torture in Tajikistan.
The meeting participants discussed problems of combating torture and shared their positive experience in defending victims of torture.
They, in particular, noted that it was impossible to establish facts of use of torture and ensure the opportune carrying out of forensic medical examination because national mechanisms are not enough efficient for the opportune response to such facts.
The lawyers were unanimous in their opinion that sometimes the reason for use of torture is insufficient legal competence of law enforcement officers.
The head of the board of the Khatlon Collegium of Advocates, Ghulom Boboyev, considers that it is necessary to make amendments to the country’s Criminal Procedure Code that would provide for the procedure of consideration by judges of oral and written complaints by defendants about use of torture against them during the preliminary investigation.
The other problem is lack of independent forensic medical examination, because physicians working with the pretrial detention facilities frequently deny the facts of use of torture and fully support the investigation bodies.
Participants in the meetings adopted a number of recommendations for the government to prevent the use of torture.
They, in particular, offered establishment of separate investigative committee, putting the medical component of the pretrial detention facilities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, establishment of independent center for forensic medical examination, and compulsory carrying out of forensic medical examination straight after detention in the presence of defense lawyer.
