Uznews, Nukus, 18 Aug 2009 – Another long break has been taken in the case of journalist and human rights activist Salijon Abdurahmanov who was charged with drug dealing. The Nukus town prosecutor’s office seems not to know what to do with materials of the investigation.
A week ago, police investigator Erkin Nurmashev, who investigated the case of Salijon Abdurahmanov, Uznews.net’s Karakalpakstan correspondent, told his lawyer that the investigation had been completed and all materials had been sent to the Nukus prosecutor’s office.
It now should study the case and decide whether to send it for an additional investigation or to court. Prosecutors seem not to decide which decision to take.
Salijon’s brother and lawyer Bahrom Abdurahmanov has been failing for several days now to meet investigator Nurmashev who told him over phone that the investigation was completed and the case was sent to the prosecutor’s office.
Prosecutors also avoided contact with him.
The lawyer said that prosecutors’ behaviour was strange and that they were waiting orders from on high, otherwise they would have decided a long time ago.
That the investigation and prosecutors are dragging the case and the very way of detaining Salijon Abdurahmanov on 7 June show that the trumped-up case is a political order against the journalist, Bahrom Abdurahmanov believes.
“I can see that neither investigators nor prosecutors take independent decision, they seem to always wait for orders and when they receive them they show their activity and dependence,” the lawyer said.
Salijon Adurahmanov, 58, is accused of attempting to commit crime under Article 25-273, Part 5 “illegal sale of drugs or psychotropic substances in large consignments”, which is punished by a prison term from 10 to 20 years.
This charge was brought against the journalist after the Nukus police failed to prove his guilt on charges of storing and using drugs without the aim of sale under Article 276, Part 2.
The investigation was carried out with numerous violations, such as the failure to take fingerprints from Salijon’s car and packets of drugs found in it. Investigators did not question personnel of a car park where he used to park his car either.
“Ignoring all details that favoured the detainee and refusing to conduct a full investigation into lighter charges, the Nukus police department brought a more serious charge,” Bahrom Abdurahmanov said. “This is nothing but a desire to imprison the journalist at any cost.”
The journalist himself wrote a letter to the Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office in Tashkent in which he said that he had nothing to do with the drugs found in his car and detailed violations of the procedure during the investigation into his case. However, he has not yet received the answer from the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
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