;sub=u sual&nid=190
15.06.07 19:00
Case of woman ready for suicide reaches high court
Uznews.net – Following a number of trials of different levels and
self-immolation attempts a lawsuit filed by Irina Akopyan, a resident of
Karshi who was unlawfully deprived of her flat, has finally reached the
Uzbek Supreme Court, but will it produce any result?
After 11 months of bureaucracy in courts of various instances, Irina Akopyan
appealed to the Kashkadarya Region court for civil cases on 1 May 2007.
However, the court, first, refused to accept her lawsuit citing various
groundless reasons and accepted it only on 15 May.
Of course, Akopyan had to pay a state duty for this. The victim had paid
this duty five times over the 11 months and in vain. Over this period she
had spent $5,000 she had earned in Russian on legal costs, complaints,
lawyers and renting a flat.
Irina Akopyan lost her own flat on 30 May 2006 when her ex-husband
unlawfully sold her flat to a certain Dilafruz Pardayeva. Akopyan herself
was working in Russia then and when she returned to Karshi she literally
found herself on the street.
Since then she has been fighting for her flat, living in rented flats and
paying $50 a month on average.
"During all this time I have provided the authorities with evidence that a
notary and the head of the regional archive falsified documents and the
results of the expert examination of signatures which show that the
signature in the purchase-sale contract is not mine. As, you can see, all
this was useless," the woman said.
In March, Akopyan, having got tired of refusals and excuses, said that if
this lawlessness does not end she would commit self-immolation on Karshi’s
central square. The authorities promised then that they would take necessary
measure. However, nothing has changed since then.
And now the Kashkadarya Region court for civil cases sent her lawsuit to the
Uzbek Supreme Court against her will. Akopyan said that this had been done
so because the regional court had not been able to gather three judges to
decide this issue.
However, Akopyan is not able to shuttle to Tashkent to defend her interests
there, especially when she will have to pay state duties and fees to lawyers
again because she does not have any money left.
"Moreover, I do not believe anymore that it is possible to restore justice,"
Akopyan said with indignation. "All the courts are bonded with and cover up
one another in Uzbekistan. Another reason is I am an ethnic Armenian and I
think that the ethnic issue plays not the last role in this case."
And now Irina Akopyan has sent letters to nine top officials in the region,
including the governor, the head of the national security (SNB) department,
the head of the regional police department and the regional prosecutor,
warning them that she intends to stage an open-ended picket on Karshi’s main
square.
An Uzbek former lawyer said that the threat of self-immolation or picket
would have hardly any impact on the Uzbek authorities. In the country where
everywhere lawlessness rules it will be easy for the authorities to find a
solution to this situation.
"After a possible death of Akopyan they would be able to quickly issue a
certificate saying that she was insane and close the case. That is why the
best solution in this situation if she appeals to international
organisations and the Armenian community. In general, this problem can be
solved through other means," the former lawyer said.
However, the chairman of the Jizak Region branch of the Human Rights Society
of Uzbekistan, Bahtiyer Hamrayev, did not share the former lawyer’s view.
Akopyan’s desire to commit suicide or take other radical measures will not
be a single case in Uzbekistan, he believes. Over the past five or six
years, many Uzbek citizens have tried to solve their problems in this way
and the authorities would just ignore them.
"These measures cannot remain without attention and only when someone
decides to commit self-immolation the authorities start solving his
problem," Hamrayev said. "Although, they try to hide such information from
the international community, keeping it under their control."