E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2 page 28 whereabouts. After seven months, she reportedly received a phone call in the evening from a lawyer in Tashkent who told her to go to Tashkent and informed her of her husband’s trial. When she arrived in Tashkent on the next morning, the trials had been concluded and he had been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. He was reportedly detained in Karshi colony until 1997, and in spring 1997, he was reportedly transferred to Sangorod prison clinic in Tashkent, due to his bad state of health. In autumn, after five to six months of medical treatment, he was returned to Karshi. In May 1998, he was reportedly taken to Tashkent, where he was said to have been sentenced by the Supreme Court to 10 years’ imprisonment on fabricated charges. Until 1999, he was reportedly detained in a humid cell in Tashkent prison, also commonly known as Tashturma, where he was said to have been beaten and placed in a plastic shirt which contracted when he moved. He was reportedly transferred to Karshi 51/64. In April 1999, he was said to have been left unconscious for three days. The prison authorities reportedly took him out, thinking he was dead. He was allegedly given no medical help. He is said to be suffering from kidney ache, and he is said to be covered in sores on his hips, legs and side of the body. He was reportedly refused a transfer to Sangorod prison clinic. Ilhom Zainabitdinov, born in 1979, was reportedly arrested on 30 June 1997 in the green market in Andijan by local people when, in a drunken state, he attempted to snatch a gold chain from a lady. He was reportedly taken to police station No. 2 in Andijan, where groups of three or four police officers allegedly beat him for two days. They reportedly denied him food and drink (in very hot summer temperatures), lifted him up and threw him on the ground (the so-called “helicopter method”) as well as kicked and beat him. The police are said to have wanted to make him confess to having robbed another woman a week earlier. At the end of the second day, he reportedly signed a confession as a result, which was countersigned by a State-appointed lawyer. On the second day, the police are said to have searched his father’s home. When his father attempted to see his son, he was reportedly denied access. On the third day, he was said to have been transferred to Andijan prison where he stayed until the court hearing in October 1997. When he told the judge that he was forced to take responsibility for a second crime which he did not commit, the judge reportedly responded that, “So many people lie and you are the only one telling the truth?” His lawyer also raised the question of ill-treatment, which the judge is said to have ignored. He was reportedly sentenced to 12 years by the local court. According to the information received, on appeal, the sentence was said to have been repealed and another hearing reportedly took place in the summer of 1998 in the city court, resulting in a sentence of nine years. Upon appeal at the regional court, the sentence was reduced to seven years. He was reportedly released on 5 July 2000 after serving three years. During the three years, he had been moved to five or six different prisons. Mumin Zainabitdinov, Ilhom Zainabitdinov’s younger brother (see above), aged 15 at the time, was reportedly arrested on 24 April 1999 in Andijan when his brother’s case was being reviewed at the regional court, and brought to the main city police station. He had reportedly been pressured to steal by some men, who are believed to have been ordered to put such pressure on him. At the police station, the police officers are said to have given him electric shocks, and to have beaten him. As a result, he is said to have suffered from a burst appendix. Without notifying his father, Mumin Zainabitdniov was reportedly transferred to Andijan state clinic on 3 May 1999 and operated on. The police are said to have accused him of stealing, allegedly to put pressure on his family not to pursue the appeals in his brother’s case. The criminal procedure was said to have been closed and he was released 18 days later. On 24 June 1999, he