CCPR/C/122/D/2577/2015
supervisory procedure. The author sent a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office,
which merely forwarded the complaint to the Syrdarya Prosecutor’s Office, which was
itself responsible for the criminal prosecution that had violated Mr. Formonov’s right to a
fair trial. On 4 September 2009, that Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the complaint without
providing any reasoning, and stated that any additional applications on the same subject
matter would be “left without consideration”. The author also submitted a complaint to the
Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs and a letter to President Karimov. On 26 April 2014,
Mr. Formonov’s family filed a complaint under the supervisory procedure to the Supreme
Court, which remained without response.
2.5
Two cases were brought by or on behalf of Mr. Formonov before the Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention, which in an opinion dated November 2012 found that his
prosecution and imprisonment had been arbitrary and had amounted to a violation of his
right to freedom of expression under article 19 of the Covenant, and directed the State party
to provide Mr. Formonov with a new trial.
The complaint
3.1
The author claims that her husband is a victim of violations by Uzbekistan of articles
7, read alone and in conjunction with article 2 (2), and 9 (1), 14 (1), (2) and (3) (b), (e) and
(g), 17 and 19 (2) of the Covenant.
3.2
The author claims that, in violation of article 7 of the Covenant, Mr. Formonov was
subjected to incommunicado detention for one week after his arrest, was suffocated by
being forced to wear a gas-mask with closed air-vents, was repeatedly and severely beaten,
was held in isolation, stripped of his clothing and handcuffed, and was held in an unheated
prison cell for 23 days in temperatures below freezing. The author also claims a violation of
article 7 read in conjunction with article 2 (2) because the State party failed to establish
safeguards against torture to prevent Mr. Formonov from being held incommunicado, failed
to provide him and his family with access to an independent lawyer, failed to ensure that
places of detention were free from any equipment that could be used to inflict torture, failed
to allow independent monitoring of detention facilities, and failed to properly investigate
instances of torture and provide an effective remedy.
3.3
Concerning article 9 (1) of the Covenant, the author asserts that the true motive of
the Government in arresting, detaining and incarcerating Mr. Formonov was to persecute
him for his human rights work and to silence him. The author maintains that Mr.
Formonov’s arrest and detention is therefore arbitrary.
3.4
The author maintains that the pretrial investigation and trial included the following
egregious violations of article 14 of the Covenant:
(a)
Mr. Formonov’s confession was extracted by torture;
(b)
Mr. Formonov was held incommunicado and denied the right to
communicate with any counsel. Eventually, he was allowed to communicate with a lawyer
appointed by, and acting under the influence of the Government, who was present when the
authorities interrogated and tortured Mr. Formonov in order to force him to sign a false
confession. Mr. Formonov declined the lawyer’s services and was forced to rely on his
father-in-law, Mr. Yakubov, who had no legal training, to handle his legal defence.
However, the court first impeded Mr. Yakubov’s from preparing a defence, then removed
him as counsel without notice moments before the trial began. Judge K. attempted several
times to limit Mr. Yakubov’s access to prosecutorial documents. Mr. Yakubov and Mr.
Formonov were never granted access to certain court documents, including the decision of
the appellate court;
(c)
Mr. Formonov was held in an iron cage during his trial, which violates article
14 (2) of the Covenant;3
(d)
No witnesses were questioned in the presence of Mr. Formonov or his
representative during the only hearing, which lasted less than 30 minutes and was,
according to the author, composed solely of Judge K., who read the judgment and sentence;
3
See Amnesty International, Fair Trial Manual (second ed.), (London, 2014).
3