DUSHANBE, December 23, 2011, Asia-Plus — Lawyer Gulchehra Kholmatova, who represents the injured party in court, questions the objectivity of investigation into death of Bahromiddin Shodiyev, who died in hospital on October 30, 2011.
“The charge of negligence has been officially brought only against Abdurahmon Dodov, an investigator at the police station in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour districts,” says the lawyer. “Meanwhile, there are witnesses who say that several police officers have been involved in this incident, but they have just got off with dismissal.”
“According to the case materials, there are witnesses who say that illegal methods of investigation were used against Shodiyev, but these statements have not been taken into consideration during the investigation,” she added.
We will recall that officers from the police station in Dushanbe”s Shohmansour district arrested Bahromiddin Shodiyev on October 19 on 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
Police say Sangov allegedly committed suicide by jumping from a second-story set of stairs and, when he was then returned to an interrogation room, by repeatedly banging his head against a wall.
The trial of two officers from the Sino police station is going on. The defendants — former policemen Abdurahmon Yoqubov and Qodir Hasanov — have been officially charged with negligence that led to Sangov”s suicide. Both were dismissed from the police force after they were charged.
