E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2 page 29 was reportedly rearrested on the same accusation, and the investigation was prolonged for three months. During his detention in Andijan prison, he reportedly swallowed a metal cross on 13 October 1999. He was reportedly operated on again without his father’s notification. The operation is said to have coincided with his brother’s appeal. On the same day, his father had written an appeal to the head of the Centre for Human Rights of Uzbekistan. It is believed that psychological pressure was brought on his younger son on orders from the procurator’s office. The prison authorities are said to have told Mumin Zainabitdinov that he would never leave the prison. On 4 November 1999, he was reportedly sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for theft. When he raised the torture allegations in court, the judge is said to have stated, “You were not beaten enough - you should have your hands cut off.” When the sentence was published, it reportedly was dated 29 October 1999, i.e., before the court hearing took place. When it was raised with the authorities, the judgement was still pre-dated for 3 November. Mumin Zainabitdinov was reportedly detained at the children’s colony in Zangiata, and transferred to hospital colony No. 18 in Tashkent at the end of February 2000. He was reportedly released on amnesty in October 2001. Javlon Azimov, born in 1982, and Davron Azimov, born in 1983, were reportedly abducted from their sport college in Tashkent on 5 May 1998. They were reportedly held during 11 days in a flat where they were beaten up, tied to a radiator and had scotch applied on their eyes. As a result of the beatings he was subjected to, Davron had later to undergo an operation in the lower abdominal part (left side). Before being released on 16 May 1998, they were allegedly threatened with death if they were to tell anyone what had happened. It is believed they were abducted upon the order of a colonel from the MVD who had accused their eldest brother of theft. The eldest was reportedly accused of having stolen some money when he was working for the colonel as a private trainer for the latter’s sons. During the abduction period of Javlon and Davron Azimov, their mother is said to have been visited on several occasions at night-time by a lieutenant-colonel of the MVD who is believed to have asked her to pay a bribe of US$ 150,000 in order for her sons to be released. On 12 May, she and her lawyer are said to have filed a complaint with the SNB. It is believed that SNB officers later denied that any complaint had been filed and refused to open any investigation into the abduction and ill-treatment, despite repeated requests, including through a lawyer. The eldest son is said to have been arrested in Ulianosk city in the Russian Federation in May 2002. He was released after one month of detention because of lack of evidence. In July 2002, he was reportedly rearrested and deported to Tashkent on 19 October 2002. He is now said to be facing charges of theft and to be held in the Tashkent city prison, also commonly called Tashturma. Akhmatkhon Atakhanov, a 54-year-old man who had worked in a mosque, was reportedly taken on 5 May 1998 to a Namangan police station where he was allegedly forced to sign a document. There, his hands were reportedly tied behind his back, and he was hit with a baton. Drugs were said to have been placed on him. He is said to have been interrogated over a period of four months in the SIZO of Namangan with a view to making him confess. He is said to have been asked whether he belonged to an extremist group. He was reportedly hit with a bat, including on the chest, lifted up and dropped on the floor (the so-called “helicopter method”). In September 1998, he was reportedly sentenced for the second time (he had already been sentenced in 1994 in similar circumstances) to three and a half years in prison for illegal