TASHKENT -- A woman has committed suicide in the western Uzbek city of Andijon after reportedly being interrogated by police for four days, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports.
According to Yelena Urlayeva, chairwoman of the Uzbek nongovernmental organization Human Rights Alliance, Gulsumoi Abdujalilova, a 32-year-old university student in Germany who was home on vacation, killed herself on December 4 by swallowing large amounts of pills.
Urlayeva told RFE/RL on December 5 that Abdujalilova was summoned by Andijon police last week and interrogated for four days.
Urlayeva said Abdujalilova was beaten while at the police station and forced to write statements against Muhammad Salih, the self-exiled leader of the opposition People's Movement of Uzbekistan (OHH).
Urlayeva said Abdujalilova left a suicide note in which she wrote: "they tried to make me kill some opposition activists, but it is better if I die myself than to take someone else's life."
A friend of Abdujalilova, who asked to remain anonymous, told RFE/RL that he and Abdujalilova often communicated via Skype. He said that she told him that Andijon police had summoned her last week.
"I later learned that she had committed suicide," he said.
It is not clear why Abdujalilova was summoned to police and kept there for four days. Interior Ministry officials in Andijon were not available for comment.
The OHH website expressed its condolences to Abdujalilova's relatives and stated that she had never been a member of the opposition movement.
Read more in Uzbek here
According to Yelena Urlayeva, chairwoman of the Uzbek nongovernmental organization Human Rights Alliance, Gulsumoi Abdujalilova, a 32-year-old university student in Germany who was home on vacation, killed herself on December 4 by swallowing large amounts of pills.
Urlayeva told RFE/RL on December 5 that Abdujalilova was summoned by Andijon police last week and interrogated for four days.
Urlayeva said Abdujalilova was beaten while at the police station and forced to write statements against Muhammad Salih, the self-exiled leader of the opposition People's Movement of Uzbekistan (OHH).
Urlayeva said Abdujalilova left a suicide note in which she wrote: "they tried to make me kill some opposition activists, but it is better if I die myself than to take someone else's life."
A friend of Abdujalilova, who asked to remain anonymous, told RFE/RL that he and Abdujalilova often communicated via Skype. He said that she told him that Andijon police had summoned her last week.
"I later learned that she had committed suicide," he said.
It is not clear why Abdujalilova was summoned to police and kept there for four days. Interior Ministry officials in Andijon were not available for comment.
The OHH website expressed its condolences to Abdujalilova's relatives and stated that she had never been a member of the opposition movement.
Read more in Uzbek here
