DUSHANBE, November 5, 2011, Asia-Plus — Interior Minister Abdurahim Qahhorov has ordered to thoroughly investigate the death of Bahromiddin Shodiyev who was allegedly tortured in police detention.
The Interior Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloyev says Major Dilovar Murodov, Captain Alisher Inoyatov and Lieutenant Abdurahmon Dodov from the police station in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district were dismissed as a result of the internal investigation into their alleged role in the death of Bahromiddin Shodiyev. Besides, the deputy chief of the Shohmansour police station, Lieutenant-Colonel Ilhomjon Karimov, was dismissed.
“By interior minister’ order the Shohmansour police station chief, Colonel Safarmad Odinayev, the chief of the investigation department within the Shohmansour police station, Major Abduqodir Nazarov and his deputy, Senior Lieutenant Bahodur Sodiqov, were reprimanded,” the spokesman said.
According to him, the interior minister has ordered to thoroughly investigate the death of Bahromiddin Shodiyev and if those three dismissed police officers are guilty of his death, to institute criminal proceedings against them.
We will recall that the NGO Coalition against Torture released a statement on November 3, in which it urges the authorities to investigate Bahromiddin Shodiyev’s death. The Coalition is seriously concerned over the death of the 28-year-old Bahromiddin Shodiyev, who was detained on October 19 on suspicion of having committed a series of thefts and died in the National Medical Center on October 30.
According to the Coalition, the police station in Dushanbe”s Shohmansour district arrested Bahromiddin Shodiyev on October 19 suspicion of theft. The following day, he was taken comatose to the National Medical Center, where he underwent surgery. He died 10 days later.
Relatives say Bahromiddin Shodiyev died on October 30 eleven days after he was beaten in the police station in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district.
Meanwhile, police say Shodiyev, who they suspected of having committed a series of thefts, tried to escape by jumping out of a second-floor window during his interrogation at the police station.
The Interior Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloyev said Shodiyev had three previous convictions. “He was detained on October 19 on suspicion of having committed a series of thefts. “All the facts were proved and Shodiyev admitted to the thefts,” said Asadulloyev, “During the interrogation, he jumped out of the second-floor window. Shodiyev was taken to the National Medical Center on October 20 where he died on October 30 of tuberculosis and splanchnopathy.”
Bahromiddin’s mother, Niyozbibi Bouriyeva, says her son suffered from drug addiction and they were going to hospitalize him on October 19, “but four police officers detained him not far from our house and took him to the police station in the Shohmansour district.” “The next day, he was taken to the resuscitation department. Physicians needed my permission for operation; that is why police informed me that my son is in the hospital,” Ms. Bouriyeva said.
According to her, Bahromiddin told her that police officers severely beat him making him admit to the crimes he did not commit. “He said they used beatings and electric shock to extort confessions,” said she. “He said police taped his mouth shut so no one could hear him screaming. He was practically unconscious when heard that policemen were agreeing that if anything goes wrong they will say that he sustained injuries while jumping out the second-floor window.”
Physicians from the National Medical Center say Shodiyev had serious craniocerebral injury and intracerebral hematoma.
Similar situation happened to Safarali Sangov who died last March from severe injuries sustained in what his relatives say was a beating at the police station in Dushanbe”s Sino district, the statement noted.
