The Prosecutor’s Office of Dushanbe has initiated an investigation into the death of Maksudjon Saidov. A criminal case has been opened against two employees of the Second Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sino district of Dushanbe. They were the ones who detained 36-year-old Maksudjon Saidov, a resident of Kulob, who subsequently […]
The Prosecutor’s Office of Dushanbe has initiated an investigation into the death of Maksudjon Saidov.
A criminal case has been opened against two employees of the Second Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sino district of Dushanbe. They were the ones who detained 36-year-old Maksudjon Saidov, a resident of Kulob, who subsequently died in the police station.
These police officers are suspected of “torture” and “abuse of power.”
Maksudjon Saidov was detained on January 8 in Kulob on suspicion of illegal drug trafficking of “crystal methamphetamine.” The police officers from the Sino district conducted the operation to detain him in Kulob and brought him to Dushanbe.
The Internal Affairs Department of Kulob stated that the police officers from the Sino district acted in violation of established procedures by conducting the operation in Kulob without prior notification to the local police department. The Kulob police department claimed they were not informed about the detention and do not have information regarding this incident.
Four days after the detention, the body of the deceased Saidov was urgently transported from Dushanbe to Kulob and buried on January 12. Signs of torture were visible on the body, with burn marks on his hands and feet. Presumably, these burns were caused by electric wires. Electric shock torture is often used by law enforcement in Tajikistan to extract confessions from detainees.
One of Saidov’s friends, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Radio Ozodi that the authorities feared possible protests regarding the death of the detained resident of Kulob. According to him, before handing over the body to the relatives on January 12, several employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Dushanbe spoke with Saidov’s family, claiming that those responsible had allegedly already been detained and would be punished. Additionally, the relatives were asked not to file any complaints.
More than ten days after the death, the authorities of Tajikistan have not yet officially commented on the death of Maksudjon Saidov. There has also been no information regarding the operation conducted by the capital’s police in Kulob without prior notification to local law enforcement.
This is not the first case where detainees die from torture and ill-treatment in the police departments, the State National Security Committee, detention facilities, and investigative isolators in the country. Earlier, in January 2023, another resident of Kulob, Abdulkahhor Rozikov, also died after being tortured in the police department. This incident sparked mass protests among the residents of Kulob, after which the authorities were forced to detain three police officers. They were later sentenced to 14 years in prison.