Tagoibek Sharifbekov, a 20-year-old resident of Vakhdat, who was recently arrested by the police, says he was tortured by police officers.
Sharifbekov was arrested on April 7 this year on suspicion of cell phone theft from his Afghan business partner, Sharifbekov’s lawyer Najmiddin Najmiddinov told the AP.
“My client told me that two police officers have arrested him without any reasons, illegally kept him in their office trying to get his confession. Sharifbekov said he was tortured, beaten and given electric shocks by a group of police officers headed by senior detective of the Vakhdat Police Department Azam Mirzoev. He claims police officers were applying another type of torture – they plunged his head into the water and held it in there for a definite period of time, not letting his breath,” the lawyer has said.
He said that the same day police officers let him go as they failed to get his confession, but seized his national and international passports and told him to bring 1.700 Somoni to the police department the next day.
“It should be mentioned that in the very beginning the victim, a citizen of Afghanistan, told the police that Sharifbekov was not guilty but the police officers did not listen to him,” Najmiddinov said, adding that forensic medical examination, which was carried out on April 10, revealed multiple injuries in Sharifbekov caused by beating and use of electric shocks.
Last Saturday, April 14, the lawyer met with the country’s Prosecutor General Sherkhon Salimzoda and told him about tortures in Vakhdat’s Police Department providing a pack of documents, including the request by Sharifbekov’s mother to carry out an investigation into this fact, the results of medical examination and other supporting documents.
“Prosecutor General promised to carry out the investigation. On my turn, as a lawyer, I will try to call all responsible persons to account in line with the “Tortures” article, which was recently embedded into the Criminal Code of the country,” Najmiddinov has said.
