Applying for an appointment with Buritosh Mustafayev, Chairman of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, on the visiting day January 31, six citizens of Uzbekistan never expected that it would end in so bizarre a manner. Insisting to see Mustafayev, they were dragged to the nearest police station. One of them, Larisa Kuznetsova, 55, was assailed and battered in the process.

A face-to-face meeting with Mustafayev is frequently the only chance for citizens of Uzbekistan to complain of unfair rulings or solve pressing problems that defy all other means of solution. Hence the crowds from all over Uzbekistan that besiege the Supreme Court building on visiting days. Arranging a meeting with Mustafayev, however, is a chore. On January 28, the previous visiting day, the recently promoted chairman refused to see anybody at all. His secretary kept telling everyone who asked that he was taking over and could not be bothered. At least 100 people came on January 31 to apply for an appointment because of it, and was Kuznetsova among them. She wanted an indemnity for unlawful imprisonment of her son (this story is available here).

Mustafayev would not receive anyone again. The first visitors to return from the waiting room informed those outside that it was Deputy Chairman Jamalov who was standing in for his patron. The crowd was disappointed and began protesting. Kuznetsova was protesting too because Jamalov had turned down several of her complaints.

Several protesters suggested drafting a petition to Mustafayev and taking it to the president's waiting room in the hope that he would interfere on behalf of the people and order Mustafayev to receive visitors. "We've travelled hundreds of kilometers to get here!" people from Andijan, Jizak, and other cities were saying. Swirling emotions notwithstanding, the petition was quite polite, "Dear Buritosh Mustafayevich. We've been coming here for over a month and sincerely hope for a meeting" - that sort of thing. Twenty-two signed the petition. Six people were chosen to take it to the president's waiting room.

It turned out, however, that getting into the waiting room of the president was not any easier than meeting with chairman of the Supreme Court. Police officers on duty told the petitioners that the office hours were over. The timetable tacked to the wall of the building indicated that office hours ended at 6 p.m., and it was only 5 a.m. when the petitioners sought entry. The latter pointed it out to the sentries. It took them some time to persuade the policemen to phone their superiors. They eventually did so and said that they had the orders to let only two petitioners inside. They said that the rest could wait outside beyond the gate.

"We were doing just that, waiting outside and talking when one of us said, "Here, take a look at this auto. This colonel is these policemen's commander," Kuznetsova told Ferghana.Ru. "And so I decided to approach the officer. I came over, said "How do you do" and asked "Are you these men's CO?" - "Yes, I am." - "These men wouldn't tell us their names when we asked. Could you please tell me why?" It set him off for some reason, and the officer began screaming at me. "What do you want their names for?" was the gist. "We wanted to enter and they didn't let us in. We only wanted their names to phone in and say they were keeping us out." - "What are you doing here anyway? Staging a provocation?" - "Why would you say that? We've been at the Supreme Court. People there are indignant. I hope it won't result in anything nasty." - "Are you trying to start a war?" "No wars," I said. "We are but waiting here for our representatives to come out." And that was when he said all of a sudden, "All right, get her to the nearest internal affairs district department!" The colonel barely said it when one of the sentries rushed over, seized me just like I was a criminal, and began pulling me to the car. I screamed for help. All men were standing still, rooted to the spot by fear, and the sentry kept pulling me to the car. He dragged me to the car, forced me on the ground, and began kicking me in all earnest. I kept screaming. I was told afterwards that this colonel had been kicking me too. They both began working me over. I was scared to death. This guy, he was in blinding rage. He kept kicking me and muttering something in Uzbek. I only did my best to cover the head because that's where he was aiming..."

Kuznetsova was pushed into the car and taken to the Jakkasarai Internal Affairs District Department. The rest of the petitioners ended up there too, including the two who had emerged from the waiting room.

The detained petitioners spent over four hours in cells and were released at only about 10 p.m. Before getting out, everybody was forced to sign a written pledge never to participate in pickets again (though they had never participated in one before). Policemen told the detainees that they could leave only upon signing it or they could remain behind the bars ("It's up to you"). Kuznetsova alone refused to sign it. When she said that she had been beaten by the police, she was told to write an explanatory note. She wrote a formal complaint instead but the officer on duty wouldn't log it. Neither was the police brutality explained or apologized for.

Kuznetsova went to Hospital 17 in the morning where doctors diagnosed "head and shoulder bruises". The doctor told Kuznetsova that he had to phone the police and said that her district police officer would come to see her soon. Nobody did.

The medical examiner Jakkasarai assistant attorney sent Kuznetsova to would say afterwards that the bruisers had been made by deliberate kicks. "They must have been really working you over," he said.

Kuznetsova took the matter up to the presidential waiting room and met with its chief by name of Ergashev. Ergashev wouldn't register the complaint and asked her to mail it because he did not want to be "directly involved if that's all right with you." Kuznetsova did mail it, without any real hope to see the colonel and his subordinate prosecuted. She knows that the chances of it are even slimmer than the chances to see chairman of the Supreme Court.