Criminal complaint against Zakir Almatov

Uzbekistan – Torture – Almatov

In December 2005, Wolfgang Kaleck, founder and general secretary of ECCHR, filed a criminal complaint against former Uzbek minister of interior Zakir Almatov, the Uzbek head of secret service Rustan Inojatov, and others to the Federal Public Prosecutor on behalf of eight Uzbek citizens because of torture and crimes against humanity.

Case

The complaint contains – based on detailed witness testimonies – concrete allegations of torture as well as the commission of the massacre in Andijan on 13 May 2005 against Almatov and eleven other leading members of the Uzbek national security circle. The actual cause for the complaint against Almatov was his presence in Germany in December 2005 for cancer treatment. Obviously as a reaction to the complaint he departed suddenly.

Context

The German Federal Public Prosecutor rejected the opening of investigations in early 2006. Equally during Inojatov’s visit to Germany in November 2006, the Federal Public Prosecutor rejected any action and put forward that Inojatov would be present in Germany because of an official invitation and had thus immunity.

So far it is still open, which authority officially invited Inojatov for what reason. Inojatov is one of the main suspects for the massacre in Andijan that was not under examination by an independent commission up-to-date.

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German Federal Public Prosecutor

The Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor is Germany’s highest prosecutory authority.

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Torture

The law is clear: torture is prohibited under any circumstances. Whoever commits, orders or approves acts of torture should be prosecuted. This is set out in the UN Convention against Torture which has been ratified by 146 states.

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