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CONCLUSIONS

The deterioration of law-enforcement practices documented in this report has resulted in part from the crackdown on suspected political and religious opponents of the government. The rise in the number of arbitrary arrests associated with this crackdown and the subsequent burden on police, coupled with prosecutorial carte blanche and reliance on confessions in order to secure convictions, has most likely made torture of all classes of accused persons a more frequent occurrence.

Official corruption throughout the criminal justice system exacerbates the problem of torture. Impunity for torture allows police and prosecutors to obtain confessions from defendants, and thus ensure their convictions. Long sentences provide greater opportunities to extract bribes from defendants and their families to reduce the term of imprisonment. Police also profit from torture, by extorting bribes from family members after they detain their relatives.

The routine presence of torture in Uzbekistan's criminal justice system is not due to ignorance or the poor training of law enforcement officials, or to the lack of knowledge of the law or how to use it on the part of the victims. Torture persists and is even growing in frequency due to the systematic refusal of government officials to implement existing laws which would prevent it, or to hold the perpetrators accountable.

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