Gulirano Kosimova who recently won partial justice in a shocking case of beatings and abuse by the Uzbek authorities, has again spoken out in a recent video appeal. It marks a troubling escalation in a case that has already exposed grave human rights violations in Uzbekistan and a lack of political will to hold those in power to account. Although the court sentenced the head of the Furkat district police and his deputy to four years in the equivalent of an open prison, nine other police officers who participated directly in the assault, walked free without charges. However, on November 28, the judge sent a directive to the prosecutor’s office stating that circumstances revealed during the court hearings indicated that some of the individuals who committed the crimes had not been brought to justice, and that the prosecutor’s office should therefore decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings.
Kosimova initially chose to not to speak publicly after the trial in the belief that the prosecutor’s office would follow the directive of the court and hold the remaining perpetrators to account. “I said I would stop speaking online and wait for the prosecutor’s conclusion regarding the remaining nine officers.” Her decision to break that silence, she stresses, was not voluntary but forced by fear.
Kosimova repeatedly frames her appeal as potentially her last. “Maybe this will be my final appeal,” she states, explaining that she is now surrounded by individuals she describes as “hardened criminals” and that threats are no longer abstract. “They are threatening me and my family. Maybe I will live, maybe they will kill me.” She fears that the law can no longer protect her given the level of intimidation she is facing and the absence of effective safeguards.
Kosimova describes receiving phone calls from unknown numbers that were highly conspicuous. One on occasion, a man called her claiming she had outstanding utility debts and insisted on meeting in person. She asked how he had obtained her phone number, why he was calling her, and what authority he had. When she pressed for details the caller abruptly ended the conversation. She later learned that the caller was a person with a serious criminal background. For her, this was not a misunderstanding but a deliberate act of intimidation.
Kosimova links these calls to a broader pattern of threats that escalated after the trial and has extended to her immediate family, including her children. She recounts that one caller made indirect but unmistakable sexualized remarks involving her daughters. “When threats involve your children,” she says, “this is no longer about pressure. This is terror.” Her testimony reflects a constant state of fear rooted in everyday routines: children going to and from school, being visible and unprotected.
In her appeal, Kosimova repeatedly emphasizes that she is not speaking from paranoia but from lived experience. She describes how individuals with known criminal histories have appeared in her life “by coincidence” after her case became public. “Before this,” she says, “these kinds of people never crossed my path.” The timing, she insists, is not accidental but designed to silence her through fear.
Living with Perpetrators: Reinstatement, Inaction, and Psychological Harm
A central source of Kosimova’s distress is the continued presence of individuals connected to her abuse within the law-enforcement system. She states that at least one officer involved in the case was dismissed from a supervisory role but was later quietly reinstated to active duty. “If a person is removed and then brought back,” she asks, “what does that mean for justice?” For her, this signals not accountability but institutional protection.
She also highlights the unresolved status of the remaining nine police officers identified during the trial as direct participants in her abuse. According to Kosimova, materials related to these officers were formally separated by the court and were supposed to be transferred to the regional prosecutor’s office. Yet months later, she says, no meaningful progress is visible. “They are still there,” she explains. “And I am the one who has to live with the consequences.”
Kosimova describes the psychological toll of being confronted in daily life with the very people who stripped her, filmed her, and humiliated her as a form of ongoing trauma. “Do you understand what it means,” she asks, “to see them again, to pass them in daily life, to know they are still working?”. Without any preemptory disciplinary measures, protection orders, or safeguards, the harm suffered by Kosimova has not ended with the verdict—it has merely taken on a different form.
Online Harassment, Disinformation, and the Cost of Speaking Out
In addition to direct threats, Kosimova describes a wave of online trolling and harassment. She says anonymous accounts have attacked her character, questioned her credibility, and mocked her trauma. She believes these attacks are coordinated and aimed at discrediting her testimony rather than engaging with the facts of the case.
Kosimova strongly rejects claims that she lacks proof of wrongdoing. “I have more evidence than necessary,” she states, noting that it was precisely the evidence that made the case impossible for the court to ignore. Her frustration is directed not only at online abusers but at the broader environment that allows such campaigns to flourish unchecked.
In a disconcerting moment in her video appeal, she says that she has already taken steps in case something happens to her. “All my evidence has been copied and given to trusted people,” she says, naming journalists and individuals who have digital copies. The statement appears to suggest she believes her personal safety is no longer guaranteed.
Throughout her appeal, Kosimova returns to one painful question: why does the pressure continue after she complied with all legal procedures, withdrew from public speaking, returned to her job, and placed her trust in the law? “Why are new scenarios being invented?” Her voice is not defiant but deeply exhausted. Speaking explicitly as a woman and a mother, she adds that she has already lost everything a woman can lose — her dignity, her sense of safety, and her peace of mind.
Kosimova’s appeal exposes the vulnerability of survivors of state brutality who are left exposed to retaliation, threats, and online attacks. Without protection, suspension of implicated officers, and a thorough and timely investigation into threats against her, her ordeal continues.
Case Summary
Gulirano Kosimova is a school principal from Uzbekistan’s Fergana region who was beaten, stripped naked, and filmed by police officers during a staged operation in April 2025. The operation was allegedly intended to fabricate rape charges against former tax official Kurbonali Abdurakhmonov after he refused an unlawful demand by police.
In November 2025, the Kuva District Criminal Court convicted the head of the Furkat district police and his deputy and sentenced them to four years in an open prison known as a “settlement colony.” At least nine other officers, identified by the court as direct participants in the abuse, were neither suspended nor prosecuted, despite a court directive to the prosecutor’s office to consider the initiation of criminal proceedings.
