Torture is an endemic, serious problem in Uzbekistan. The UN Committee against Torture has repeatedly—most recently following its November 2007 review of Uzbekistan— expressed concern about “particularly numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations” of “routine use of torture” in Uzbekistan.99 The UN Special Rapporteur on torture, who conducted a country visit to Uzbekistan in late 2002 and concluded that torture was “systematic” in the country, has likewise continued to regularly voice concern about the persistent use of torture in Uzbekistan and the impunity with which it occurs.100 Human Rights Watch has documented the cycle of abuse that starts at the time of arrest and continues through conviction and beyond. Common methods of torture and ill-treatment include beatings with truncheons and bottles filled with water, electric shock, asphyxiation with plastic bags and gas masks, sexual humiliation, and threats of physical harm to relatives. Those arrested and convicted on charges related to religious “extremism” are particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment.101 The German federal government’s 2008 human rights report describes the human rights situation in Uzbekistan as “worrying” but fails to mention widespread use of torture as a matter of concern.102 Counterterrorism cooperation with Uzbekistan has involved German law enforcement questioning of at least one detainee in Uzbek custody. In September 2008, officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) interrogated Sherali A. in a prison in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with a view of gathering information on the Islamic Jihad Union. German investigators also interrogated another Uzbek citizen, in prison in Astana, Kazakhstan, in July 2008. These interviews are discussed further below. Guidelines As in the UK, allegations of German complicity in torture or abusive detention abroad have attracted media and political scrutiny. The focus in Germany has been on German collusion in the extraordinary rendition of terrorism suspects, the participation of German agents in interrogations abroad, and the failure of German authorities to provide appropriate 99 Committee Against Torture, Conclusions and Recommendations: Uzbekistan, February 26, 2008, CAT/C/UZB/CO/3, http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/406/89/PDF/GO840689.pdf?OpenElement (accessed September 10, 2009), para. 6; Committee Against Torture, Conclusions and Recommendations: Uzbekistan, April 6, 2002, CAT/C/CR/28/7, http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CAT.C.CR.28.7.En?Opendocument (accessed September 10, 2009), para. 5. 100 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, Mission to Uzbekistan, February 3, 2003, http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G03/107/66/PDF/G0310766.pdf?OpenElement (accessed April 14, 2010). See also the Special Rapporteur’s annual reports on “Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur,” including the most recent report, published on February 26 2010 and available at http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G10/116/20/PDF/G1011620.pdf?OpenElement (accessed on April 14, 2010). 101 See Human Rights Watch, Creating Enemies of the State, March 2004, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2004/03/29/creating-enemies-state-0. 102 German Federal Foreign Office Human Rights Report, pp. 266-267. 37 Human Rights Watch | June 2010