Defendant in Dok-1 Max case asserts that he was pressured during investigation

The defendant in the ongoing court case regarding the "Dok-1 Max" syrup, which has been allegedly linked to the deaths of 65 children in Uzbekistan, denied his previous statements during the October 4 hearing, Daryo correspondent reports.

He claimed that he had been pressured to make those statements during the investigation. The defendant, a former deputy director of the "Scientific Center for Standardization of Medicines", was questioned by the judge during the session, who asked if he had been harassed during the investigation. The judge assured that any claims of harassment would be investigated administratively.

In response, the defendant said, "Now I don't know if you understand this as pressure or what, because I was told that these things were foreseen and ready."

Then the judge asked, "Who told you these things?"

The defendant answered "investigator".

"Well, if your instructions are in writing in advance, what about your statement of regret? Is it also pre-recorded? There are also these circumstances (information about the sale of drugs and the receipt of income) in your application for repentance. What do you say to that? Did you write your statement of remorse yourself, or was it not written down?", the judge asked.

"Yes, I wrote my regret application myself. There was no agreement on the remaining drugs. But the drugs were accumulated," said the defendant.

The defendant added that the investigator threatened him during the investigation while writing a statement of remorse.

"Did the investigator threaten you to write a statement of remorse like this? Or did you voluntarily write it yourself?", the judge asked.

"There was also intimidation there. They said that if you don't admit these things, you will be locked up," said the defendant. In response, the judge told the defendant that not only was he denying his testimony in the investigation, but also that what he was saying in court did not match, and asked the reason for this.

During the court investigation, the defendant admitted that the drugs that needed to be tested were collected and sold. But he said that these things were not planned in advance; there was no agreement.

"No one asked for these drugs, and the list was not made," he answered.

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