Berlin to examine prosecution request

The German government has yet to determine its next course of action following a recent call by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to prosecute a senior Uzbek official for his alleged involvement in last May's Andijan massacre. "We are checking this case for possible investigation, but the individual is no longer in Germany," Frauke-Katrin Scheuten, a spokeswoman for the German Prosecutor-General's office said from the southern city of Karlsruhe on Tuesday. Her comments follow a request on Friday by Manfred Nowak for Germany to prosecute Uzbek Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov, who until recently had been receiving cancer treatment in the northern city of Hanover. The request came after eight Uzbek citizens called upon German federal prosecutors to open a case against him, the BBC reported. The eight maintain that Almatov should face charges for individual torture and because of his role in the alleged massacre in the southern city of Andijan on 13 May. Rights groups say that upwards of 1,000, mainly unarmed civilians, may have been killed when Uzbek government forces violently suppressed mass protests in the city. Tashkent put the death toll at 187, vehemently denying all requests for an independent international inquiry requested by international organisations and major donor countries. Almatov, who was allowed into the country on humanitarian grounds, tops a list of 12 senior Uzbek officials now banned from entering the European Union because of their role in Andijan. As interior minister for the past 14 years, he oversaw law enforcement, the police and prisons in the Central Asian state, the BBC said. Nowak's call for Almatov's prosecution will not be the first, however, his departure from the country makes the case more complicated. "This case represents a unique opportunity to bring a measure of truth and justice for some of the horrors that occurred under the command of Zokirjon Almatov," Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. “While the victims could not safely seek justice in Uzbekistan, German law allows them to seek redress before a German court.” According to a statement by the watchdog group, German law recognises universal jurisdiction for torture and crimes against humanity, meaning Germany can try and punish the perpetrators of such crimes, no matter where the crimes were committed, and regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators and victims. Victims of abuse in Uzbekistan asked the German federal prosecutor to open a criminal investigation and pursue Almatov on three counts: individual crimes of torture; torture as a crime against humanity; and the Andijan massacre as a crime against humanity. Crimes against humanity include widespread or systematic crimes against civilians, including murder and torture, the rights group said. HRW provided evidence to the prosecutor, supporting the victims’ allegations against Almatov. Since the mid-1990s, the rights group has extensively documented the use of torture by police under Almatov’s command. Additionally, HRW has handed over evidence about the role of the police in the massacre of hundreds of civilians in Andijan in May. Almatov is accused of being responsible for the use of torture by police in places of pre-trial detention and in prisons, locations under his direct control and, according to HRW, it was now up to the federal prosecutor of Germany to decide whether or not to open a criminal case against Almatov and pursue the matter. “The facts are there,” Cartner asserted. “If the prosecutor applies the law to the facts, Almatov will be arrested and tried in Germany.” Recognising Germany's strong support of the International Criminal Court and its investigations in Africa,” she added with the Almatov case, Germany had the chance to demonstrate its commitment by bringing justice through its own courts. In 2002, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture found torture in Uzbekistan to be “systematic.” Methods of torture that police use against people in detention include beatings with truncheons, electric shock, hanging people by their wrists or ankles, rape and sexual humiliation, asphyxiation with plastic bags and gas masks, and threats of physical harm to relatives. One of the cases HRW brought to the prosecutor’s attention was that of Muzafar Avazov, who died in August 2002 after having been immersed in boiling water in Jaslyk prison, run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He had been arrested on charges of religious extremism.