Uzbek Official Denies Knowledge Of Child-Rape Claim
TASHKENT, July 4, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- An Uzbek official today denied knowledge of a claim by an Uzbek woman that her 6-year-old daughter was raped for political reasons.
The mother, Muhayo Ismoilova, claimed the alleged rape was ordered by the Uzbek National Security Service, to make her husband, Rukhitdin Fahrutdinov, confess to extremism charges he had previously denied.
But the head of the press service of Uzbekistan's National Security Service, Olim Turakulov, declined to comment, telling RFE/RL's Uzbek Service today that he had no information about the allegation.
Ismoilova claimed that her daughter, Oysha, was raped on March 31, saying that Oysha went with her older brother that day to an Internet cafe, disappeared, and returned to the family home at night.
Ismoilova also claimed that before the alleged rape, her husband had refused to confess, but that afterward he signed all confessions and the case went to court.
"As a mother I think this was done deliberately," she said. "They wanted my husband to confess to all of the charges that he had been denying."
She said she had not disclosed the rape earlier since the family did not want to make it public.
Her claims could not be independently confirmed.