DUSHANBE -- Tajikistan's Supreme Court has sentenced three police officers to lengthy prison terms on torture charges.
The Civil Society Coalition Of Tajikistan Against Torture said over the weekend that the verdicts and sentences of the three police officers had been pronounced on June 17.
Police officers Sherali Azizov, Sadi Davlatmurodzoda, and Eraj Naimov, were found guilty of torturing Hasan Yodgorov, a resident of the western city of Tursunzoda. The officers were sentenced to prison terms of between 10 years and 13 years.
Yodgorov confessed to a murder in 2017 under duress and torture, but was released from custody eight months later after the real killer was apprehended.
Yodgorov said at the trial that there were more police officers who tortured him with electric shocks and water, but he did not know their names.
Police brutality and the use of torture by investigators in Tajikistan has been an issue raised by human rights organizations for years.
In 2019, Tajik authorities toughened punishment for torture in custody, increasing the maximum punishment for that crime from five years to 15 years in prison.