One defendant, Dilshod Maripaliev, described his interrogation by two police officers… “[He] was yelling at me. If you don’t sign I will rape you with the nightstick. Then he beat me on my head. [The other officer] said they would bring my younger brother if I did not sign. I was scared and agreed to confess.”
One defendant, Bakhtiyor Abdukhalilov, told the court: “I was brought into a room with Z. He looked very bad and was crying. He couldn’t really walk or sit. They told him to explain what could happen to me if I did not confess and then left us alone. He told me how they tortured him. He told me that he was beaten up and beaten on the soles of his feet. He said that he did not want me to be beaten up like that. Therefore I should confess and be released on bail. Then they came back. First they promised to release me if I confessed, then they beat me on my face and neck. I wanted to say the truth but nobody was listening. I decided to confess to get out of there and find a lawyer. I did not understand the words in the document. […] The next day I told the investigator and my lawyer what had happened. In the evening a physician came and asked me where they beat me. The operativniki and one officer on duty were in the same room. […] The next evening they brought me into a room. My lawyer and the investigator were not there. They told me to undress. I was standing there in my underwear. Then they started to beat me. This went on for a long time. First I was still able to stand, but then I could only sit on a chair. They showed me a piece of paper and told me to read it. I could not see anything and could not hear with my left ear. Then they said, “If you get dressed within five minutes we will stop beating you.” I managed to do so. Everything inside hurt […] On Monday the investigator called me into his room and said, “Now you know what you have to answer.” I confessed everything. The investigator called two physicians. I told them that I was not able to eat and that my head hurt. I was scared to say anything more because the operativniki were standing there. I was given a headache tablet.”
