DUSHANBE. May 27. “Asia-Plus” -- To prevent tortures Tajikistan should improve its legislative mechanism and introduce amendments into its new Criminal and Procedural Code, a judge of the Tajik Supreme court Larisa Kobilova spoke today at the V session of heads of Supreme courts of SCO member states which is taking place in Tajikistan President’s residence of Pugus in Varzob region.

According to her, the current legislation does not have articles that forbid tortures. “We have only one related article and a series of articles on abuse of power,” she said. The new Criminal and Procedural Code clearly specifies that human rights should be observed at all stages of criminal procedures and trials and courts should not take into account facts received with the use of illegal methods.

Kobilova believes that Tajik media should highlight every torture related case. “Information on illegal methods of extraction of information should be made public,” she said, adding that “when society will start talking about such facts, level of tortures will decrease.”

Furthermore, she said that Tajikistan does not have statistical data to identify the frequency of tortures. “No torture-related cases have ever been considered in courts of Tajikistan,” she said.

Participants of the V session of heads of Supreme courts of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states are scheduled to discuss two pressing issues: “Gender equality in legislations of SCO member states” and “Legal mechanisms against tortures in legislations of SCO member states”. The meeting, which will last till the evening, has brought together representatives of Supreme courts from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.