DUSHANBE, November 16, 2011, Asia-Plus — Criminal proceedings have been instituted against Lieutenant Abdurahmon Dodov, a former investigator with the police station in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district, under the provisions of Article 322 (4) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – negligence. He is reportedly charged with negligence that led to suspect’s death.
Ms. Gulchehra Kholmatova, the defense lawyer of the injured party, says an investigation is currently under way to establish persons involved in that crime. “We will receive the findings of the forensic medical examination soon and will discuss the necessity of carrying out independent examination,” Kholmatova noted.
We will recall that officers from the police station in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district arrested 28-year-old resident Bahromiddin Shodiyev on October 19 on suspicion of theft. The following day, he was taken comatose to a hospital, where he underwent surgery. He died ten days later in a hospital.
Relatives say Bahromiddin Shodiyev died on October 30 eleven days after he was beaten in the police station.
Shodiyev”s mother, Niyozbibi Bouriyeva, says 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.”
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.”
Physicians from the National Medical Center, however, say Shodiyev had serious craniocerebral injury and intracerebral hematoma.
The Interior Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloyev told Asia-Plus on November 8 that 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.
