TASHKENT (Reuters) – Three Uzbek policemen have been arrested and charged with illegally detaining and torturing a man who then died in hospital, the Prosecutor General’s office said on Saturday.

According to state prosecutors, three policemen in the eastern city of Andijan detained a local man in late May and tortured him.

The man was then taken to a hospital where he was filmed by relatives, unconscious, with a tube in his mouth and heavy bruising on arms and legs. He died on June 11, prosecutors said.

The policemen were arrested on June 1 and the case is being investigated, prosecutors said. It was unclear on what grounds he was arrested.

While the Central Asian nation of 34 million tries to shake off the image of a police state, its Interior Ministry prompted public outrage this month by summoning two popular comedians and demanding they apologise for a sketch lampooning corrupt traffic policemen.