E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2 page 39 believed not to have been satisfied with the verdict and to have written a protest letter. A new verdict was issued and he was sentenced to another eight years in September 2000. This sentence was upheld on appeal. He is said to have been detained at Navoi Colony 29 where he was held in an isolation cell for 25 days, beaten with police clubs and left under the sun for hours. During one of her visits, his mother is reported to have seen blood stains behind his ears. On 6 May 2002, he is said to have been taken to the National Security Service (SNB) Headquarter in Tashkent where he was reportedly interrogated by the initial investigator of the GUVD. He is believed to have been forced to sign a new confession. On 21 November, his mother was reportedly informed that he had been forced to sign new confessions. He was eventually charged with article 159. He was convicted again by the Tashkent City Court on 28 November (see below, case of Iskander Khudoberganov). His lawyer is believed to have been prevented from participating in the trial and to have been denied access to his criminal file which is said to be classified as “secret”. He is said to be in a poor health condition, having breathing and heart problems. Marat Rakhmanov, a Russian national, reportedly went to visit his sister in Samarkand in August 1999. One evening a friend of his sister’s came over, who was a prostitute, and who had drank too much, and he accompanied her home. The next morning, on 17 August 1999, she and her child were reportedly found dead. Marat Rakhmanov, as well as his sister and her child, aged 15 months, were reportedly arrested and held in the Samarkand IVS. Marat Rakhmanov was said to have been molested and severely beaten for seven days. When he refused to sign a confession admitting to have committed the murder of his sister’s friend, his sister and her child were reportedly brought to him and he was told that they would be raped in front of him. According to the information received, he told the police that he would sign anything they wanted, if they let his sister go and she called him from home. He was reportedly further beaten so that he would not renounce his intention. He was said to have had a gas mask placed over his head, cigarette butts extinguished on his body and severe burns inflicted by an electric device used for boiling water. He was threatened that he would be put in a bottle. In the court hearing in March 2000, he reportedly told the judge about the treatment he had allegedly been subjected to while in custody. He was reportedly told by the judge that he was lying. A friend of his, who was present in the courtroom and who had worked with judicial medical expertise, told him to take off his shirt. The judge reportedly asked him what he was doing. He replied that he had been undressed so often, he was not ashamed. His body reportedly bore small burns caused by cigarette butts and severe larger burns, as well as uneven cuts as if caused with a bottle. A court official is said to have made an attempt to chase the friend from the room, and the judge reportedly asked, “Who had allowed the presence of a medical expert in the room?” Marat Rakhmanov is also said to have been suffering from kidney and heart problems, but no medical examination was carried out, despite his requests. The judge is said to have told Marat Rakhmanov that he wanted to avoid his responsibility, that he was a criminal. He furthermore reportedly told him that, as he is a man, he should take that suffering. On 30 March 2000, he was sentenced to death, and transferred to death row in Kattakurgan prison. On 20 April 2001, the death sentence was reportedly commuted to 20 years’ imprisonment by the Board of the Supreme Court. The prison guards reportedly did not inform Marat Rakhmanov that his death sentence had been commuted. They are said to have taken him out of prison, leading him to think that he was being taken to be shot. It was only upon arrival in the colony in Namangan, that he was told by other prisoners where he was, and he understood that his sentence had been commuted.