Police officers who caused a detainee’s death in Buka district DIA imprisoned to 8.5 years

On June 3, 2023, a citizen born in 1987 who lived in the Yukori Chirchik district was arrested on suspicion of committing a number of theft crimes and was placed in the “temporary detention room” at the Buka district police department. On the same day, at 23:30, an emergency medical service was called due to deterioration of the suspect’s health, and he died in the hospital despite the treatment provided by doctors.

It was identified that on June 3, at approximately 22:00, the operatives of the Criminal Investigation Department of Buka district DIA took the suspect to the service room violating the procedural order, and an inquiry was conducted regarding his involvement in another crime. In the process, the citizen’s health worsened and later he died. According to the primary forensic medical examination, it was found that the citizen had injuries on his body.

In connection with this case, the Tashkent regional prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case under Article 235-3 of the Criminal Code, and 2 operatives involved in the incident were arrested.

After this case, a number of DIA officials who were irresponsible on their duties were dismissed. In addition, operatives involved in this incident were dismissed from the system of internal affairs bodies.

Preliminary examination results showed that the DIA officers hit the deceased in the abdomen and strangled him from the neck.

According to the information provided to Kun.uz, the deceased had a closed fracture of the left 5th rib in the chest, bleeding into the surrounding tissues, large amounts of bleeding into the peritoneum, small intestine and mesentery, thyroid gland of the neck and sublingual. Injuries such as bleeding into the tissues of the bone area were detected.

On December 1, 2023, the verdict was read out to the DIA officers in the Urtachirchik district court on criminal proceedings.

According to the verdict, 4 employees were found guilty of the citizen’s death. They are J.S. (37-year-old), the head of the Buka district DIA Investigation Department, operatives of the department – D.J. (38-year-old) and Sh.G. (31-year-old), as well as prophylactic inspector of Buka district DIA S.T. (31-year-old).

In the verdict, it is written that J.S., D.J., Sh.G. and S.T. did not confess to the crime declared against them in the court, but their guilt of having committed this crime was confirmed by the statements of the victim and witnesses who were questioned at the court session, and expert opinions.

J.S. was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment, D.J. and Sh.G. – to 8 years and 6 months, and S.T. – to 6 years. Also, all defendants were deprived of the right to work in the system of internal affairs bodies for a period of 3 years.