DUSHANBE, February 5, Asia-Plus — Dushanbe resident Bobojon Amirov has been sentenced to six years in prison for preventing bailiffs and police from forcibly evicting his family from family dormitory.
A court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district on February 14 ruled that Amirov be given a term of six years in jail. The sentenced followed his conviction of hooliganism, use of violence against public agent, and insulting public agent.
Sergey Romanov, the head of the monitoring service of the Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law, who attended the trail as observer, told Asia-Plus that the dormitory, in which Amirov lives with his family (totaling 18 persons), was house for 70 families. In August 2006, the dormitory was transferred to jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), and therefore, its residents had to leave it. Meanwhile, Amirov was said that he and his family may stay in the dormitory because he had served as policeman for eight years. Moreover, he was removed from active service as a disabled person and was registered as group 3 invalid.
However, 12 bailiffs from the court of Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district accompanied by officers from the district police and firefighting departments as well as medical workers came to the dormitory on October 23, 2007 and demanded that Amirov and his family should leave the dormitory.
According to Romanov, witnesses say that bailiffs and police officers handled Amirov’s wife and children very roughly and one of police officers even struck his wife with walkie-talkie. “The blow was so powerful that she lost consciousness,” said Romanov.
According to the Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law, firefighter then began to throw a stream of cold water on children and other relatives of Amirov.
Only after Amirov said he had thrown gasoline on himself and threatened to set fire to himself, the bailiffs and police officers stopped their attempts to forcibly evict his family from the dormitory.
However, criminal proceedings were instituted against Amirov lately.
Abdurahmon Sharipov, Amirov’s defense lawyer, noted that actions of bailiffs and police officers had been illegal and could be characterized as cruel treatment, which is gross violation of human rights. The lawyer noted that the sentence passed on his client by the district court had been unfounded and he would appeal against conviction.
In the meantime, Justice Akbar Safarov, who took in the trial, refrained from giving any comments.
