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Central Asia and the case of Erkin Musaev

Raminta Daukšaitė,

presentation for AI Sevilla

17 of December, 2014


Central Asia and the case of Erkin Musaev


Central Asia in Commonwealth of

Independent States


Tajikistan

• Restrictions on freedom of expression:

• Torture and other ill-treatment by law enforcement

officers;

• Violence against women;

• Both the Constitution and the Criminal Code retain

provisions for the death penalty.

"Every person has the right to life. No person may be

deprived of life except by the verdict of a court for a very

serious crime."


Tajikistan

• Contrary to international standards, domestic legislation

does not require law enforcement officers to include

information in the detention record about the identity

of the officers involved in detaining a person, a practice

that facilitates impunity.

• Article 94, part 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code only

requires law enforcement officers to inform detainees

of their rights once the detention record has been

drawn up.


Restrictions on freedom of expression in

Tajikistan

• Independent media outlets and journalists have faced criminal and

civil law suits for criticizing the government in recent years);

• Pressure on media outlets that voiced criticism of the authorities

increased prior to the parliamentary elections in February 2010,

and following the September 2010 ambush in Rasht district by

alleged Islamist militants and former opposition commanders in

which 28 government troops were killed.

• Websites of local news agencies and an opposition blog were

allegedly blocked by the authorities;

• Tax inspections allegedly targeted media outlets that had criticized

the authorities in connection with the events in Rash.

• Fines for defamation and insult.


Torture and other ill-treatment by law

enforcement officers inTajikistan

• Victims include those accused of Islamic extremism, but also those

accused of ordinary crimes.

• Often torture is used to extract confessions or other information

incriminating the victim or others;

• Confessions extracted are used as evidence in courts.

Torture practices include:

• the use of electric shocks; attaching

• plastic bottles filled with water or sand to the detainee’s genitals;

• rape;

• burning with cigarettes;

• beating with batons, truncheons and sticks;

• kicking and punching.


Torture and other ill-treatment by law

enforcement officers inTajikistan

• Domestic legislation provides no mechanism whereby

a detainee could contact a lawyer immediately after he

or she is deprived of their liberty.

• Domestic legislation obliges law enforcement officers to

notify family members within 12 hours after a person is

detained. However, this time frame is often not adhered

to in practice.

• There are no routine medical examinations.

• Victims rarely lodge complaints about abuse by law

enforcement officers for fear of repercussions, and

impunity for such abuse is the norm.


Violence against women inTajikistan

• Between 1/3 and 1/2 of all women have suffered

physical, psychological or sexual violence at the hands

of their husbands or other family members at some time

during their lives.

• Women’s access to the criminal justice system is very

restricted with inadequate police and judicial response,

resulting in massive under-reporting.

• Failure of the state to take adequate measures to

prevent illegal early marriages.

• Failure to ensure that all marriages are registered and

that the law banning polygamy is enforced.


Human rights violations in Azerbaijan

On 14th May 2014 Azerbaijan took on the

Chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of

Ministers...

• Prisoners of conscience (NGO leaders, NIDA - youth

activists, politicians, bloggers and journalists);

• Restrictions on NGOs (funding);

• Restricted right to freedom of assembly (no public

protests).


Azerbaijan


Azerbaijan


Human rights violations in Kazahstan

• Torture and other ill-treatment by police and security

service;

• Convicted of terrorist crimes are reported by relatives of

prisoners to be serving prison sentences in cruel,

inhuman and degrading conditions in high security

prisons (violation of Presumption of innocence).

• Violation of non-refoulement obligations (Non-

refoulement is a principle of international law, which

forbids the rendering of a true victim of persecution to

their persecutor). Return of asylum seekers and

refugees to countries where they were at real risk of

torture or other ill-treatment.

• Reparations.


Uzbekistan prisoners 2014


Cases of torture and other ill-treatment in

Uzbekistan

Routine and pervasive torture and other ill-treatment by

security forces during:

• arrest,

• transfer in police custody in pre-trial detention;

• transfer by security forces and prison personnel in post-

conviction detention facilities.

Individuals charged with or convicted of:

• “anti-state” and terrorism-related offences,

• being particular members or suspected members of

political opposition parties and banned Islamic

movements or Islamist groups.


Uzbekistan prisoners 2014

Erkin Musaev

- a former Ministry

of Defence official,

working for the UN

Development

Programme

(UNDP).

Sentenced

to a total of 20 years

imprisonment.


Erkin Musaev

• Detained for “drug trafficking”’;

• Accused of espionage (the disc was planted in his bag

by the National Security Service (SNB) officers);

• Accused spying for an unidentified NATO member state

and of misusing UN funds;

• Denied the right to contact relatives;

• No access to a lawyer;

• Subjected to psychological intimidation;

• Month of daytime beatings, night-time interrogation and

threats to arrest his family;

• He eventually did sign a confession on the proviso that

the SNB leave his family alone;


Erkin Musaev

• Three separate unfair trials in June and July 2006 and

in September 2007. All three courts admitted as

evidence confessions obtained through torture;

• In May 2012 decision Erkin Musaev v Uzbekistan the

UN Human Rights Committee found that “[…] [the]

competent authorities did not give due and adequate

consideration to Musaev’s complaints of torture and

forced confessions made both during the pre-trial

investigation and in court.”;

• Violation of several articles of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights and the ICCPR (The International

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).


Erkin Musaev

AI is calling for the release of Erkin

Musaev on the grounds that repeated calls

for a fair retrial in his case have gone

unheeded for eight years, and for a prompt,

impartial and effective investigation into the

allegations that Erkin Musaev was tortured

in custody.


Thank you!