DUSHANBE, July 13, 2012, Asia-Plus – We do not recognize the Amnesty International report on torture and other ill-treatment in Tajikistan.

Jumakhon Davlatov, State Adviser to the Tajik President for Legal Issues, stated this at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 13.

“At the same time, we do not deny existence of isolated cases of use of torture in Tajikistan,” Tajik official said, noting that Tajik authorities have fought the use of torture and other ill-treatment since the Soviet time.

“The main objective of a separate article in Tajikistan’s Penal Code, which defines and criminalizes torture, is in reflecting the extent of the torture problem in the country,” Davlatov noted.

We will recall that a new report titled “Shattered Lives: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Tajikistan,” which was released by Amnesty International on July 10, notes that that  torture, beatings and other ill-treatment of detainees are routine in detention centers in Tajikistan.

In this report, the London-based rights watchdog describes the risks faced by detainees.  The report says the torture methods employed by Tajik authorities include electric shocks, boiling water, suffocation, beatings, burnings with cigarettes, rape and threats of rape.

There is no reliable system of independent medical investigation of torture allegations: judges routinely ignore torture allegations at trial and information obtained through torture is admitted as evidence in the trials of those detained, the report said, noting that torture in Tajikistan thrives in a climate of widespread corruption and impunity.