“Birdamlik” leader’s father not allowed a lawyer Khasan Choriev,in custody since June 17,is not allowed a lawyer and visits from family 12.07.13 14:16 On July 10 defense lawyer Meli Kholmirzaev asked the Kashkadarya regional prosecutor’s office for a meeting with his client Khasan Choriev,but his request has been denied. Investigator Rustam Novchaev told him that he would need to wait a few more days. He also added that the meeting between Choriev and Kholmirzaev must take place with an investigator present,although the law allows for a private meeting between a lawyer and his client. Not allowed visitors Earlier,on July 8,the same investigator,Novchaev,did not allow the 71 year old man to be seen by his wife,Noroy Khasanova,or his children,according to family members. The rationale behind the refusal was that Khasan Choriev – who was arrested on June 17 and charged with rape – committed an “especially heinous crime”. Defense lawyer Kholmirzaev thinks this is just an excuse,and cannot understand why a sick old man,even if charged with rape,would be jailed before his trial. Kholmirzaev still has not received a response to his petition to get the elderly man out of jail and have him released on its own recognizance. The defense lawyer has also never seen the key documents in Choriev’s case file:the statement from the “rape victim” Matluba Abdurakhmanova from Kashkadarya and the judge’s order to open a criminal investigation. Human rights activist Shukhrat Rustamov also could not get a look at the documents. Rustamov sent the papers to the Kashkadarya prosecutor’s office,requesting to be officially reinstated as Choriev’s public defender,but he has not received a response. “When I was at the prosecutor’s office on June 27 they told me with a fake smile that I must wait at least 15 days,” says Rustamov. It’s clear that this case is murky The morning of June 17 Choriev was taken from his home in Shakhrisabz by two policemen supposedly to meet with the prosecutor. That same evening Choriev called his daughter and told her he was being accused of rape and that he is in jail in Qarshi. The Kashkadarya regional prosecutor’s office and the local police for a long time refused to acknowledge Choriev’s arrest,and even accepted a missing persons report filed by his family. Choriev’s family along with human rights workers conducted their own investigation into the case,compared facts and concluded that the sick elderly man,could not have raped the young woman. “This has nothing to do with Choriev’s health—the place and the time of the alleged rape as they are stated in the arrest warrant did not make any sense”,says Malokhat Eshankulova,“Birdamlik’s” leader in Uzbekistan. It states that at 11 am on June 12 the old man was at the prosecutor’s office,and the apartment where he supposedly visited the young woman is vacant,nobody lives there,according to its owner and the neighbors. On July 3 to protest unlawful actions by the police and the prosecutor,Choriev’s relatives attempted to stage a protest in front of Kashkadarya’s regional prosecutor’s office,but were attacked,beaten and robbed by a group of specially trained women. And on July 6—during the weekend—seven of the beaten protesters were taken to the Qarshi city criminal court where each was ordered to pay a very large fine of 6 million sum (about 2220 US dollars per “black market” exchange rate). Qarshi likes Tashkent’s directive The human rights activists have no doubt that Kashkadarya gets its instructions on how to handle the old man’s case from Tashkent. “Otherwise the local authorities wouldn’t have the nerve to stage such an unprecedented beating in front of the regional prosecutor’s office”,says Rustamov. The human rights activist thinks there is a good reason why the investigator Novchaev,took a two-week business trip to Tashkent,instead of working on the Choriev case. “He wanted to get some advice on how to proceed”,says Rustamov. Human rights activists have no doubt why the elderly gentleman was arrested on trumped up charges. Just two days before the arrest international media reported that his son—“Birdamlik’s” leader Bakhodyr Choriev who now lives in the United States—intended to run for president of Uzbekistan. Uznews.net
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 13:45:16 +0000
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