Uznews, Tashkent, 08 Sep 2008 – While waiting for his trial, Salijon Abdurahmanov, Uznews.net’s correspondent in Karakalpakstan and human rights activist, has written a letter to the Uzbek prosecutor-general in which he detailed charges trumped up against him but it has not been answered yet.
In the letter written on 11 August, he said that he was driving his car on 7 June when he was stopped in Nukus for document checks during an anti-drugs campaign conducted on that day.
Police searched his car and found a plastic bag in its boot and it was established later that it contained 114 g of marijuana and 5.98 g of opium, he said. His friend who was travelling together doubted that it was drugs and suggested that it was something else, Abdurahmanov said in the letter.
He complained that the filming of his detention, search and drugs had not been attached to his case and that witnesses had not been questioned properly during the investigation, while police officers had given false evidence about the discovery and seizure of the drugs.
His lawyer Bahrom Abdurahmanov’s demands that his car be examined by forensic specialists have not been satisfied although the lawyer and the journalist have suspicions that the drugs were planted in the car which was opened by strangers when it was left in a garage. Neither were held dactylographic tests on the car and the drugs, the letter says.
Investigators did not question his relatives, friends or neighbours whether Abdurahmanov used drugs, he said. Moreover, residents of his village decided to hold a meeting to express their protest against the planting of the drugs in his car, Abdurahmanov said.
The journalist linked the charges and the criminal case brought against him to his journalistic and human rights activities. He maintained his innocence and urged the prosecutor-general to launch a new investigation into his case.
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