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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports. Scroll to: __________________________________________________________________ Ombudsperson: Pursuant to the 1997 “Law on the Republic of Uzbekistan on the Authorised Person of the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) for Human Rights Ombudsman”, the Ombudsman is charged with the monitoring of human rights law. Her work encompasses four areas of activity: the Torture and ill-treatment of children: Mumin Zainabitdinov, Ilhom Zainabitdinov’s younger brother (see above), aged 15 at the time, was reportedly arrested on 24 April 1999 in Andijan when his brother’s case was being reviewed at the regional court, and brought to the main city police station. He had reportedly been pressured to steal by some men, who are believed to have been ordered to put such pressure on him. At the police station, the police officers are said to have given him electric shocks, and to have beaten him. As a result, he is said to have suffered from a burst appendix. Without notifying his father, Mumin Zainabitdniov was reportedly transferred to Andijan state clinic on 3 May 1999 and operated on. The police are said to have accused him of stealing, allegedly to put pressure on his family not to pursue the appeals in his brother’s case. The criminal procedure was said to have been closed and he was released 18 days later. On 24 June 1999, he was reportedly rearrested on the same accusation, and the investigation was prolonged for three months. During his detention in Andijan prison, he reportedly swallowed a metal cross on 13 October 1999. He was reportedly operated on again without his father’s notification. The operation is said to have coincided with his brother’s appeal. On the same day, his father had written an appeal to the head of the Centre for Human Rights of Uzbekistan. It is believed that psychological pressure was brought on his younger son on orders from the procurator’s office. The prison authorities are said to have told Mumin Zainabitdinov that he would never leave the prison. On 4 November 1999, he was reportedly sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for theft. When he raised the torture allegations in court, the judge is said to have stated, “You were not beaten enough - you should have your hands cut off.” When the sentence was published, it reportedly was dated 29 October 1999, i.e., before the court hearing took place. When it was raised with the authorities, the judgement was still pre-dated for 3 November. Mumin Zainabitdinov was reportedly detained at the children’s colony in Zangiata, and transferred to hospital colony No. 18 in Tashkent at the end of February 2000. He was reportedly released on amnesty in October 2001. (page 29) Javlon Azimov, born in 1982, and Davron Azimov, born in 1983, were reportedly abducted from their sport college in Tashkent on 5 May 1998. They were reportedly held during 11 days in a flat where they were beaten up, tied to a radiator and had scotch applied on their eyes. As a result of the beatings he was subjected to, Davron had later to undergo an operation in the lower abdominal part (left side). Before being released on 16 May 1998, they were allegedly threatened with death if they were to tell anyone what had happened. It is believed they were abducted upon the order of a colonel from the MVD who had accused their eldest brother of theft. The eldest was reportedly accused of having stolen some money when he was working for the colonel as a private trainer for the latter’s sons. During the abduction period of Javlon and Davron Azimov, their mother is said to have been visited on several occasions at night-time by a lieutenant-colonel of the MVD who is believed to have asked her to pay a bribe of US$ 150,000 in order for her sons to be released. On 12 May, she and her lawyer are said to have filed a complaint with the SNB. It is believed that SNB officers later denied that any complaint had been filed and refused to open any investigation into the abduction and ill-treatment, despite repeated requests, including through a lawyer. The eldest son is said to have been arrested in Ulianosk city in the Russian Federation in May 2002. He was released after one month of detention because of lack of evidence. In July 2002, he was reportedly rearrested and deported to Tashkent on 19 October 2002. He is now said to be facing charges of theft and to be held in the Tashkent city prison, also commonly called Tashturma. (Page 29) was reportedly arrested at home in Namangan on 23 March 1999 by some 20 MVD officers, some of them wearing uniforms. It is alleged that he was taken to the basement of his house where he was beaten for some 30 minutes with a view to making him confess that he had a gun. It is believed that officers had come with a gun that they claimed was his. According to the information received, when he came out from the basement, he could not speak to his relatives, who were threatened not to say a word about what had just happened. His wife was then said to have been taken to the basement where she was asked to recognise arms that are believed to have been planted there by officers. Sabir Saiibbaev was reportedly taken to the Namangan City police station. His children are said to have been able to see him there some 10 days after his arrest. Thereafter, his whereabouts were not known until his wife was informed in September by relatives of co-defendants in her husband’s case that he was being tried in Tashkent. It is reported that the trial had started in camera in Tashkent at the end of August. It is not known whether a lawyer had been appointed. According to the information received, he was sentenced to death and his property was confiscated. His wife is said to have been evicted with her children from their house. She is believed to have been able to meet with her husband in Tashturma for some 15 minutes in the presence of a prison guard at the end of September. According to the information received, several appeals were lodged with the Ombudsman, the Procurator General and the Supreme Court, to no avail. The Supreme Court is said to have confirmed the death sentence on 1 October. It is reported that his death certificate was received by his family on 26 December 1999. On 28 November 2000, the Namangan City Court reportedly ruled that his family should regain half of the property that had been confiscated. It is reported that this decision was never implemented. (page 34) Marat Rakhmanov, a Russian national, reportedly went to visit his sister in Samarkand in August 1999. One evening a friend of his sister’s came over, who was a prostitute, and who had drank too much, and he accompanied her home. The next morning, on 17 August 1999, she and her child were reportedly found dead. Marat Rakhmanov, as well as his sister and her child, aged 15 months, were reportedly arrested and held in the Samarkand IVS. Marat Rakhmanov was said to have been molested and severely beaten for seven days. When he refused to sign a confession admitting to have committed the murder of his sister’s friend, his sister and her child were reportedly brought to him and he was told that they would be raped in front of him. According to the information received, he told the police that he would sign anything they wanted, if they let his sister go and she called him from home. He was reportedly further beaten so that he would not renounce his intention. He was said to have had a gas mask placed over his head, cigarette butts extinguished on his body and severe burns inflicted by an electric device used for boiling water. He was threatened that he would be put in a bottle. In the court hearing in March 2000, he reportedly told the judge about the treatment he had allegedly been subjected to while in custody. He was reportedly told by the judge that he was lying. A friend of his, who was present in the courtroom and who had worked with judicial medical expertise, told him to take off his shirt. The judge reportedly asked him what he was doing. He replied that he had been undressed so often, he was not ashamed. His body reportedly bore small burns caused by cigarette butts and severe larger burns, as well as uneven cuts as if caused with a bottle. A court official is said to have made an attempt to chase the friend from the room, and the judge reportedly asked, “Who had allowed the presence of a medical expert in the room?” Marat Rakhmanov is also said to have been suffering from kidney and heart problems, but no medical examination was carried out, despite his requests. The judge is said to have told Marat Rakhmanov that he wanted to avoid his responsibility, that he was a criminal. He furthermore reportedly told him that, as he is a man, he should take that suffering. On 30 March 2000, he was sentenced to death, and transferred to death row in Kattakurgan prison. On 20 April 2001, the death sentence was reportedly commuted to 20 years’ imprisonment by the Board of the Supreme Court. The prison guards reportedly did not inform Marat Rakhmanov that his death sentence had been commuted. They are said to have taken him out of prison, leading him to think that he was being taken to be shot. It was only upon arrival in the colony in Namangan, that he was told by other prisoners where he was, and he understood that his sentence had been commuted. (Page 39) (up to page 41) Alexander Yanovich Stopnisky, a Russian citizen, was reportedly arrested on 26 September 2002 in Tashkent on suspicion of theft. It is alleged that in order to break him psychologically, his two boys, aged 4 and 12 respectively, were summoned on two occasions to the Regional IVS of the Ministry of Internal Affairs where they were handcuffed and interrogated. The children are believed to have been threatened with the death of their father. He is said to have been made to witness these interrogation sessions, and to have been beaten on his heels, head and in the area of his kidneys in order to force him to sign a confession. It is also believed that he was tortured with a gas mask. At the time of the visit of the Special Rapporteur, he reportedly continued to be held at the Regional IVS of the Ministry of Internal Affairs despite the fact that, according to the Procurator, he was transferred on 7 October to Tashturma. He is believed to have had access to his lawyer for the first time 10 days after his arrest. According to the information received, the first confidential meeting he had with his lawyer occurred on 19 November. As he is said to have experienced heart problems, a doctor is believed to have been called on five occasions by the investigators in the case and diagnosed a heart attack. It is reported that he was given injections, but that he is not receiving any other medication. He is said to have refused to sign a confession and a document according to which he would state that he has been well treated while in custody. His relatives were reportedly asked to pay a bribe of 200,000 sums in order for him to be released on bail. From the time of arrest, it is reported that his daughter and lawyer have been writing complaints to the General Procurator, but their complaints were sent back to the criminal investigator, who was allegedly responsible for the beatings. (Pages 59 and 60)
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights on the question of torture
(E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2)
Report published: 3 February 2003
Country visit: 24 November to 6 December 2002
improvement of legislation in the field of human rights; the investigation of human rights
complaints and restitution; the provision of (public) information relating to human rights; and
cooperation at the international level. She indicated to the Special Rapporteur that she was
paying particular attention to vulnerable persons, including detainees, and had carried out visits
to detention centres on the basis of complaints received. In 2002, visits had been carried out to a
women’s and a children’s colony. (Paragraph 31)
Alexandra Yurievna Shigaeva, born in 1987, was reportedly arrested with her parents and her 4-year-old brother, Alexandrovich Vjacheslev Toropovski, on 18 September 2002 in Tashkent by officers from the ROVD of Sereliysk. They are all Russian citizens. They were reportedly taken to the Sergueli district police station in Tashkent, where the parents were accused of intentional murder. Both children were allegedly beaten with a view to making their mother confess the murder. A gas mask was allegedly placed on the children. The boy is said to have been released after 24 hours. On the second day of detention, it is believed that the mother decided to sign a confession because of the beatings she was allegedly subjected to, the worrying health condition of her daughter and threats that the latter would otherwise be raped. The two children were reportedly segregated from their parents during the whole detention. Alexandra Yurievna Shigaeva was allegedly forced to sign, under the threat that her mother would otherwise be killed, a statement according to which she had witnessed her parents committing a murder. She was reportedly held for six days. Both children were reportedly taken back to the Russian Federation by their eldest brother. According to a medical report issued on 23 October 2002 by the Orenburg (Russian Federation) Children’s Trauma hospital, she was diagnosed with a serious brain concussion/trauma, bruises on the chest and a trauma in the lower abdomen, and is said to be still experiencing memory problems with respect to her period of detention. The parents were reported to be still under investigation and are believed to have denied all accusations and to have retracted their confessions as soon as their children had been released. It is reported that their lawyer had access to them for the first time on 21 October during a meeting at the Sergeli District Procurator’s office in the presence of the investigator in the case and representative of the Consulate of the Russian Federation. According to the information received, the lawyer had to appeal to the Tashkent city procurator to have access to her clients as the investigator in the case was refusing to allow such access. She is said to have requested a medical examination by an independent doctor. The lawyer is reported to have had access to the criminal file on 23 October. It is not known when the parents were transferred to Tashturma, but it is believed that they were currently detained there during the visit of the Special Rapporteur. (Page 59)