A court in Hisor has refused to comment on why it orders the release of rapist of a 12-year-old girl by amnesty.  The court representative justified their decision to refuse to comment on the verdict by claiming that the case has been classified as “top secret.”

The Hisor city court sentenced a 42-year-old Husniddin Abdulloyev to five years in prison on December 9, but later, having applied an amnesty, the court released him from punishment.  

The defense strongly demanded that the guilty be convicted under the provisions of Article 138 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – rape.

The court, however, issued a verdict under the provisions of Article 141 (1) -- sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 in the absence of signs of crime.  

The defense has not agreed with the verdict and appealed to the Supreme Court on December 18.

The verdict has caused violent indignation on social networks.  Many social network users have condemned the judge's decision, calling it “indifference to immoral acts against minors.”  

Recall, the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT) leader, Rahmatillo Zoyirov, wrote about this incident on his Facebook page on June 17.  SDPT leader noted in his open letter to the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General’s Office that the 12-year-old girl from the Somon jamoat was raped by her 42-year-old neighbor last year.

“The 42-year-old H.A. last year raped the 12-year-old neighbor girl, who is his first cousin, in a cow-shed.  Threatening the girl and using her helpless state, he did this several times," Zoyirov wrote. 

According to him, when the girl’s parents found out about that, “H.A. by threats kept them from submitting an application [to the law enforcement authorities].”

“When it turned out that the girl is pregnant, the parents went to the prosecutor’s office and police department in Hisor to complain about the rapist neighbor, but they didn’t accept the application.  Moreover, covering the rapist, they threatened [the parents] with grave consequences.” 

According to Zoyirov, the girl gave birth to the child in April this year, and now there is pressure on the girl and her parents “in order to solve everything peacefully and without consequences.” 

SDPT leader asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Interior Ministry to take the case under their control so that the rapist would be punished.  

The girl’s uncle told Asia-Plus that Husniddin Abdulloyev has tried to pay them off.  “He offered us 10,000 somoni so that we take back our complaint filed in the prosecutor’s office but we refused.  Abdulloyev then began to threaten us through his friends,” the man said. 

“Since local police station and prosecutor’s office have ignored our applications, we have been forced to apply to the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the public.  Only after that, we have been invited to the Interior Ministry Criminal Investigation Directorate to testify,” the girl’s uncle noted. 

According to him, the case has been sent for investigation to the Hisor prosecutor’s office and Husniddin Abdulloyev has been taken into custody.