E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2 page 38 police officers. At some point, she reportedly referred to God by saying: “O God, what’s going on.” As a result, it is believed that she was accused of being a Wahhabist. She was released later that day. She is said to have then returned to her city flat where six armed officers refused to let her use the phone or open the windows despite the summer heat. In the meantime, her eldest son, Bekzod Kasymbekov, and her husband were allegedly interrogated in two separate rooms at the GUVD where they were held for 20 days. It is believed that they could hear each other’s screams and cries due to the treatment they were allegedly subjected to. As a result, it is reported that Bekzod Kasymbekov was forced to sign a confession. His mother was asked to provide him with a lawyer after 35 days of detention. The lawyer is said to have later testified that her son’s body was covered with bruises. At that time, he was transferred to Tashkent city prison, also called Tashturma, in the basement of which he was allegedly tortured. He was held there for six months before his trial at the Chirchik City Court, where he is said to have faced five different charges which could not be proved during the pre-trial investigation. Ultimately, he was reportedly charged with article 159. It is alleged that the procurator was not happy with the sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment and wrote a protest letter to the court. As a result, it is believed that he was retried for the same offence by the Tashkent regional court which increased his sentence to eight years. He was reportedly transferred to Navoi Colony 29 where he is believed to have had to pay bribes to prison guards to stop the beatings he was subjected to. It is also alleged that he was left under the sun for hours. After 10 months, he was reportedly secretly transferred to the National Security Service (SNB) Headquarters in Tashkent to face a new trial. There, he was asked to sign new confessions upon the threat of being subjected to the same treatment he had been subjected to at the local police station. He was convicted again by the Tashkent City Court on 28 November (see below, case of Iskander Khudoberganov). Police officers are also said to have tried to plant a gun at her husband’s shop, but were prevented from doing so by neighbours. He was however later forced to sign a confession admitting that he had improperly used cash money in his shop (articles 188 and 189 of the Criminal Code). Based on this confession, he was then sentenced by the Mirabad district court to one year and a half of imprisonment. An appeal was later launched with the Tashkent city court, which decided to give him a conditional sentence. Finally, it is reported that Kanditdinov Kasymbekov’s car was found in the countryside outside Tashkent stained with blood. Members of the Kasymbekov family are said to be regularly called to report to local police stations. Nosyr Abdumalikovich Khakimov was reportedly arrested in early August 1999 and taken to the Sobir-Rakhimov district police station. It is reported that he was released on 9 August, but rearrested the same day. He was allegedly forced to sign a confession admitting that he had robbed his uncle’s house, after having been taken to a dark room where his hand tied in the back, he was beaten by four police officers. As a result, he is said to have lost consciousness. On the following day, he is believed to have been charged with the beating of a cigarette seller and was taken to the Tashkent City Department of Interior (GUVD). According to the information received, he was threatened with being subjected to the same treatment as his classmate Bekzod Kazymbekov, who was shown to him covered with blood and wearing a gas mask. It is alleged that officers threatened to torture his wife, who at that time was pregnant. After 20 days, he was reportedly allowed to call his family to ask them to hire a lawyer. The lawyer was said to have been authorized to be present solely on the day the investigators completed the investigation and forwarded the case to a judge. In April 2000, he was sentenced by the Chirchik City Court under article 159 to five years’ imprisonment. Other charges that he was facing were said not to have been proven during the investigation. The procurator is