DUSHANBE, September 22, 2012, Asia-Plus — Relatives of 27-year-old Hamza Ikromzoda who died in the central detention center in Dushanbe in the evening of September 20 claim that Hamza was tortured.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports Ikromzoda”s body was handed to his relatives on September 21.
The relatives say the body carries traces of torture, including burns caused by a heated iron.
The detention center”s officials did not explain the cause of Ikromzoda”s death, while representatives of Interior Ministry”s Penitentiary Control Board said “nobody tortures anyone in Tajik jails,” RFE/RL reported
The issue of torture in Tajik penitentiaries has been raised by local rights activists for some time.
In December, dozens of inmates in a labor camp in southern city of Qurghon Teppa staged a hunger strike protesting alleged torture and beating.
The deaths of two apparently tortured inmates in the Dushanbe detention center caused a public outcry in 2011.
In 2011, Hamza Ikromzoda was sentenced to eleven years in prison for theft. Later, his jail term was reduced by thee years under amnesty law.
It is unclear why Hamza Ikromzoda was being held in the central detention center while he had to serve his jail sentence in a penal colony.
