E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2 page 54 accused of robbery. It is reported that his wife went the following day to the Sergeli district police station to search for her husband. Officers are said to have denied that he was detained there. According to the information received, on that day, he was however detained there before being transferred to the Tashkent City Department of the MVD (GUVD). His family is believed to have been informed of this transfer on 14 January. Both his wife and mother were then reportedly asked to bring him new clothes. They are said to have arrived at the GUVD at 9 a.m. but that they were made to wait until 5 p.m. It is alleged that they saw bruises on his body when he changed clothes. He is believed to have told them that he had been severely beaten and threatened with rape at the GUVD, as a result of which he signed a confession. According to the information received, his wife was asked to sign a blank paper. She is said to have refused to do so. The trial at Serguieli district court is said to have started on 25 March even if at that time, evidence had been found against others who had been arrested some two months after Odir Khashimov’s arrest. No evidence is said to have been produced during the trial and witnesses are said not to have recognized him. On 3 May, he was reportedly sentenced to 15 years and 6 months’ imprisonment. On 8 August, the sentence was confirmed by the Tashkent City Court even if it is reported he was acquitted on one of the charges. He is said to have been held in the Zangiota colony. The family is said to have sent complaint letters regarding the treatment he had been subjected to at the GUVD to the Ombudsman and the Head of the GUVD, to no avail. Saidullo Murodov was reportedly arrested on 16 February 2002 and was initially accused of murder. On 24 February, it is alleged that, while in custody at the MVD office of Termez, a towel soaked in petrol was placed on his stomach and that fire was set to it. According to the information received, he was given electroshocks and a gas mask was applied to his face with a view to asphyxiating him by closing the oxygen flow and forcing him to breathe smoke through the mask. As a result, he is said to have lost consciousness. He was also reportedly beaten on the sole of the feet. According to the information received, picture of burning marks on his stomach were taken. It is however believed that Saidullo Murodov refused to sign a confession. On 13 November, he was reportedly sentenced by the Surchi District Court in the province of Surkhandaria to six years in prison for illegal possession of drugs and ammunition which are believed to have been planted on him after his arrest. His lawyer is said to have been denied access to his client on several occasions prior to the trial. In particular, it is reported that he was unable to lodge an appeal against the verdict as he was denied access to his client and thus could not get a signature authorizing to do so. At the time of writing, the whereabouts of Saidullo Murodov were not known, as he has not been seen since the sentencing. Oleg Zarapulov, a 19-year-old member of the Union of Independent Journalists of Uzbekistan and responsible for the press centre of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, on whose behalf a joint urgent appeal was sent by the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, the Special Rapporteur of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group on arbitrary detention on 15 March 2002. He was reportedly arrested by two police officers in civilian clothes at his home on 6 March 2002. When he did not open the door, one of the officers reportedly entered his flat through the window on the second floor. He was then reportedly taken to the MVD Department of the Iakkasarai district in Tashkent. In the car, he was said to have been insulted, abused and threatened. There, officers allegedly told him that he will see how to write articles, and that he will be spending years in prison. Two officers reportedly hit him on the head and stepped on his