A 50-year-old resident of Shahritous district in Khatlon province, Tolibjon Doustov, has died after being detained by police officers. According to an official version, he died of heart attack. Meanwhile, Doustov’s relatives insist that it was a violent death.
Tolibjon Doustov was reportedly detained by police officers in a café in the administrative center of Shahritous district on July 26. Several hours later, his relatives found him dead in a hospital in Qubodiyon district of Khatlon province.
Doustov’s mother, Mehri Davlatova, says her son was detained by police officers on July 26, a day after he celebrated his 50th anniversary. “His friend phoned us and said that policemen arrested Tolibjon. According to him, they were sitting in a café when police officers came and took Tolibjon with them. We immediately applied to the police stations in Shahritous and Qubodiyon districts but we did not found him there. Later on, we were informed that he is in a hospital in Qubodiyon district. When we came there he was already dead. We were told that he was detained by officers of the police station in Dousti district,” said Mehri Davlatova.
She is sure that her son died after being beaten by police officers. “We think police officers beat him on the way to the police station and when they took him to the hospital in Qubodiyon, he was already dead,” the woman said.
The Qubodiyon prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident. According to the local law enforcement authorities, Tolibjon Doustov was arrested by three officers of the drug trafficking department at the Interior Ministry’s office for Dousti district on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking. He reportedly died of heart attack that happened on the way to the police department.
