Partial Justice for Torture Victim: Two Officials Convicted

The case of school principal Gulirano Kosimova, who was beaten, stripped naked and then filmed by several police officers, has become one of the most revealing human rights cases in Uzbekistan in 2025. What began as a staged police operation in April led to public outrage after her story emerged through local media. Her brave testimony led to a trial and the convictions of two of the perpetrators, the head of the district police and his deputy in Fergana region. However, serious concerns remain about the narrow scope of accountability and the failure to prosecute the others involved.

Systemic Abuse

In late November 2025, the Kuva District Criminal Court in Fergana region delivered its verdict in one of Uzbekistan’s most disturbing police abuse cases, sentencing former Furkat district police chief Akmal Khodjayev and his deputy Jasurbek Rasulov to four years of deprivation of liberty in a so-called “settlement colony” similar to an open prison. It was a notably lenient punishment given the documented violence and humiliation meted out to the victims.

Gulirano Kosimova and her acquaintance, former head of district tax inspection office Kurbonali Abdurakhmonov, became unsuspecting