TORTURED OVER A SHEEP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TASHKENT 001561

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2017
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF UZ
SUBJECT: TORTURED OVER A SHEEP


Classified By: CDA BRAD HANSON FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D).


1. (C) Summary: On August 14, Mashrab Jumaev, the son of
dissident poet Yusup Jumaev, was fined 62,000 soum (50
dollars) by the Karakol District Criminal Court (Bukhara
province) for stealing a neighbor's sheep. Jumaev was then
released from pre-trial detention, where he was allegedly
tortured for 21 days. Poloff was provided a written
statement and video clip from the neighbor attesting that
investigators forced him to sign false statements against
Mashrab. In addition, Mashrab described in detail the
torture that he endured, and confirmed that religious
prisoners are held separately and treated more harshly than
others. While Mashrab was in detention, his family led a
public protest in Karakol for 14 days. We believe his
treatment in pre-trial detention is reprehensible, and we
agree that he was most likely targeted by the authorities
because of his father. End summary.

MASHRAB JUMAEV CONVICTED OF STEALING A SHEEP...
-------------- --


2. (C) On August 21, poloff met with brothers Mashrab and
Alisher Jumaev, the sons of dissident poet and Birlik
opposition party member Yusup Jumaev. Mashrab was fined
62,000 soum (50 dollars) on August 14 by the Karakol District
Criminal Court for stealing a neighbor's sheep. After the
verdict, Jumaev was released from pre-trial detention, where
he was allegedly tortured for 21 days. Jumaev denied
stealing the sheep and told poloff that his neighbor and the
other witnesses were coerced through threats and beatings by
investigators into signing false statements that they later
renounced at trial. Mashrab believes that he was targeted
because of his father, a vocal critic of President Karimov.
In 2001, Yusup Jumaev was sentenced to three years
imprisonment for anti-constitutional activities. He was
immediately paroled in return for repenting in open court and
vowing to cease his opposition activities.


3. (C) Alisher provided poloff with a written statement
signed by his neighbor, stating that Mashrab was innocent of
the charges against him. Alisher also gave poloff a video,
in which the neighbor declares that police pressured him and
his son into making false accusations against Mashrab. In
addition, Alisher handed poloff a copy of the court's
verdict, pointing out that it did not include any reference
to evidence against Mashrab, which is highly unusual.
Instead, under the "evidence" column, the verdict simply
cites the sections of the criminal code that Mashrab was
found guilty of violating.

...BUT NOT BEFORE BEING TORTURED IN PRE-TRIAL DETENSION
-------------- --------------


4. (C) While waiting for his trial to begin, Mashrab was
detained for 21 days at Detention Center Number Three ("Ot
Bazar") in Bukhara. Mashrab alleged that he was tortured
repeatedly at the prison, describing the abuse in detail to
poloff. He said that Ot Bazar Prison Chief Otabek Badalov
and five other officers used a special room at the prison to
torture inmates. There four prison guards would hold Mashrab
by his arms and legs and lift him 1.5 meters off the ground
before dropping him. Guards also would beat him on the legs
with plastic bottles, hit him on the head with wooden planks
and lash his arms with iron chains. According to Mashrab,
the abuse occurred every day that he was in detention. While
torturing him, the guards reportedly demanded that he confess
to stealing the sheep and told him was being beaten because
of his father.


5. (C) Mashrab reported being moved on August 9 to the
basement of the prison, where the worst offenders, including
alleged religious extremists, were held separately from the
other prisoners. While in the basement, the beatings
intensified and Mashrab was only provided one small meal a
day. When his family tried to deliver him a package of
goods, prison guards beat Mashrab and forced him to sign that
he had received the package, although in reality he received
nothing. Before being delivered to the prison on July 26,
Mashrab also reported being beaten by three officers at the
police station in Karakol.


6. (C) Mashrab said that he was denied medical care
throughout his stay at the prison. He was only allowed to
wash once on August 13, the day before he was to appear in
court. A doctor also visited him on August 13 to cover up
his injuries. In court, Mashrab alleged that he was tortured
while in detention, displayed his bruises and requested the

TASHKENT 00001561 002 OF 003


judge to investigate his allegations. However, the judge
immediately dismissed Mashrab's accusation, telling him that
he was young and "such things happen."

REPORTED ABUSE OF DETAINESS ACCUSED OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM
-------------- --------------


7. (C) Mashrab described to poloff other horrors he
witnessed while in prison. He confirmed that prisoners
convicted of religious extremism were kept separately from
other prisoners in the basement and were treated much more
harshly. Mashrab's cell mate was an individual reportedly
arrested because his wife wore the Hijab. Although the man
denied being an extremist, he signed a confession that he
belonged to Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) after enduring severe
beatings, including the breaking of several fingers and toes.
Mashrab said that the man's body was almost entirely covered
in bruises. The man also was told that he would be released
after signing a confession, which, of course, did not happen.
Another individual accused of religious extremism was beaten
so severely that Mashrab saw his jaw bone protruding from his
face. Mashrab also reported that the basement housed actual
members of HT who refused to renounce their beliefs and would
continually chant "Allah Akbar" as they were being beaten.
Mashrab also reported seeing another room in the basement
filled with torture devices, including various restraints,
batons and a primitive electric chair.

MEDICAL INVESTIGATION THWARTED
--------------


8. (C) The brothers told poloff that they intend to appeal
the verdict and launch an investigation into allegations of
torture against prison authorities. Since being released
from pre-trial detention, the two have visited several
doctors and medical institutions to document Mashrab's
injuries. During the meeting, Mashrab showed poloff bruises
on his head, chest and arms. A doctor in Bukhara examined
Mashrab and confirmed that he had been beaten. The brothers
then tried to submit the doctor's report to a forensic center
in Bukhara, the first step in initiating an investigation
into allegations of torture, but the forensic center refused
to consider Mashrab's case until it received certain
documentation from law enforcement bodies, which they refused
to provide. The brothers then traveled to Tashkent to visit
the Tashkent Medical Academy and the Tashkent Forensic
Center, which also refused to consider the case. Alisher
described a particularly comical situation at the Tashkent
Forensic Center, where the doctor first agreed that Mashrab
had been beaten and began filling out a report. After being
called out of the office by unknown individuals, though, the
doctor returned and denied what he had just said, namely that
Mashrab had been beaten.


9. (C) Since Mashrab has been released from detention, the
brothers reported being followed in Bukhara and Tashkent by
plain-clothed individuals. According to the brothers, while
they were in Tashkent, two Deputy Police Chief Polices
visited their grandfather in Karakol and asked why the two
had traveled to Tashkent. The Deputy Police Chiefs also said
that Mashrab was fortunate to be out of prison and threatened
to put him back behind bars for continuing to tell people
that he had been tortured in prison.

JUMAEV FAMILY LEADS PUBLIC PROTEST
--------------


10. (C) While Mashrab was being held in pre-trial detention,
his family organized a protest outside the Karakul
Prosecutor's Office and Ministry of Interior Building.
Alisher took several photos of the protest, which he shared
with poloff. One picture shows Alisher, Yusup and Mashrab's
mother in front of the Prosecutor's Office holding a banner
that calls for the firing of "terrorists" from the police
force, an end to police brutality and the freeing of Mashrab
from prison. Another picture shows a plain-clothed
individual from the Prosecutor's Office forcibly taking away
a poster from Mashrab's mother. Alisher said that the family
conducted the protest everyday between July 30 and August 12,
and each time they were surrounded by plain-clothed
individuals who took away their banners and forced them away
from the premise buildings, sometimes hitting them as well.

COMMENT
--------------


11. (C) Mashrab's case would almost be comical, if it were
not for the serious allegations of tortured involved. While

TASHKENT 00001561 003 OF 003


we are relieved that Mashrab has been released from prison,
it is reprehensible that he endured 21 days of torture in
pre-trial detention while awaiting trial for allegedly
stealing a sheep. Clearly, Mashrab was detained and
prosecuted because he is the son of Yusup Jumaev, a vocal
regime critic who has been persecuted himself in the past.
The statement and video from the neighbor, the alleged
victim, persuasively demonstrate that the charges against
Mashrab have no basis in fact. Although Alisher is convinced
that the President himself is involved in framing his
brother, most likely Mashrab was targeted by lower level
officials from his town or Bukhara province who probably view
the family as troublemakers. It is interesting to consider
whether the Jumaev family's public protest positively
influenced the court's decision to release Mashrab.
Authorities might have decided to let him off with a fine in
order to avoid any more publicity surrounding the case, which
was clearly never very strong.


12. (C) In addition, Mashrab's description of the torture of
other detainees is disturbing, and confirms that individuals
are being tortured into confessing non-existent ties to HT
and that prisoners accused of religious extremism continue to
be held separately and treated much more harshly than other
prisoners.
HANSON