UZBEKISTAN: Torture and impunity for torturers continues

Mushfig Bayram reports on the Forum 18 news site that Muslims, Protestants, Jehova’s Witnesses and others are subject to torture.

“Torture and impunity for torturers continues in Uzbekistan, directed against Muslims, Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses and people of other faiths. Women are targetted for assault, and in another torture case police told a Jehovah’s Witness that complaining makes no difference as “we will remain unpunished”.

Torture and impunity for torturers continues in Uzbekistan. In a series of incidents typical of cases involving Muslims, Protestants, and people of other faiths known to Forum 18, Jehovah’s Witnesses exercising their freedom of religion and belief have been tortured by officials. The incidents documented below took place between January and June 2017, but similar incidents are known to be continuing.

Uzbekistan has also shown a total refusal to carry out its binding legal obligations in international law to both arrest any person suspected on good grounds of having committed torture, and to – under Article 4 of the United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – try them under criminal law which makes “these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature”. No such arrests or prosecutions are ever known to have happened (see below and Forum 18’s Uzbekistan religious freedom survey http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2314).”
Read the full article here