Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/KyrgyzRepublic.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the Kyrgyz
Republic. Some of these links may lead
to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even
false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to
verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Kyrgyz Republic U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/kyrgyzstan/
[accessed 26 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Authorities
reportedly tortured individuals to elicit confessions during criminal
investigations. Through June the Antitorture
Coalition reported 54 allegations of torture. The police accounted for 52 of
the allegations, while the State Committee on National Security (GKNB)
accounted for the remaining two cases. According to the Antitorture
Coalition, 21 of the 54 investigations into torture were dropped on
administrative grounds. As of the end of 2020, the Prosecutor General’s Office
(PGO) had not brought criminal charges in any of the alleged cases of
torture, though investigations continue in 33 cases. NGOs stated that the
government established strong torture-monitoring bodies but that influence
from some parts of the government threatened the independence of these
bodies. During the year
NGOs reported that courts regularly accepted as evidence confessions
allegedly induced through torture. The human rights NGO Bir
Duino reported that the police continued to use
torture as a means to elicit confessions, and that courts
often dismissed allegations of torture, claiming that the defendants were
lying in order to weaken the state’s case. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions
were harsh and sometimes life threatening due to food and medicine shortages,
substandard health care, lack of heat, and mistreatment. Physical
Conditions: Pretrial and temporary detention facilities were particularly
overcrowded, and conditions and mistreatment generally were worse than in
prisons. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES NGOs reported that
in some cases prison gangs controlled prison management and discipline, since
prison officials lacked capacity and expertise in running a facility. In some
instances the gangs controlled items that could be brought into the prison,
such as food and clothing, while prison officials looked the other way.
According to NGOs, authorities did not try to dismantle these groups because
they were too powerful and believed that removing them could lead to chaos.
Some prisoners indicated that prison officials left prison order and safety
to the prison gangs or prisoners themselves, resulting in instances of
violence and intimidation among inmates. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/kyrgyzstan/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 17 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? There are credible
reports of torture during arrest and interrogation, in addition to physical
abuse in prisons. Most such reports do not lead to investigations and
convictions. Anti-torture and other
human rights groups vulnerable in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Amnesty
International AI, 21 July 2014, Index number: EUR 04/002/2014 www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur04/002/2014/en/ Download Report at www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/8000/eur040022014en.pdf [accessed 6 January
2019] Members of the NGO
coalitions against torture and other human rights groups in Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan operate in an increasingly insecure environment.
Existing NGO legislation in all three countries does not provide sufficient
safeguards to activists and groups to freely exercise their human right to
freedom of association and the organizations issuing this statement are
concerned that new legislation is being prepared to further limit the space
in which groups and activists can operate. Members of the
coalitions against torture and other lawyers and human rights activists have
themselves been subjected to violence when carrying out their professional
duties. For example, in Kyrgyzstan several lawyers defending ethnic Uzbeks
detained in the context of violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks
in the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad in June 2010, have been
threatened and physically attacked, even in the courtroom, with no
accountability for the perpetrators. On 9 January 2014, ethnic Kyrgyz
supporters of a Kyrygz man who had allegedly been
killed by ethnic Uzbek Mahamad Bizurukov
during the June 2010 violence, beat the defendant’s lawyer Dinara Medetova, his public
defender Dina Ivashchenko and human rights defender
Rysbek Amadaliev in the
courtroom of Chuy Regional Court. The court was due
to consider Mahamad Bizurukov’s
appeal of a life sentence handed down by Osh Regional Court in 2012. The
court had reportedly ignored Mahamad Bizurukov’s allegation that he had been tortured in
detention to force a confession. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] KYRGYZSTAN TORTURE - Although the
government acknowledges that torture occurs in Kyrgyzstan, impunity for
torture remains the norm. Criminal cases into allegations of ill-treatment or
torture are rare, and investigations and trials are delayed or ineffective. In its June concluding
observations, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) expressed
concern about “widespread torture and ill-treatment of children” in detention
and closed institutions and called for prompt and effective independent
investigations. Video: Gay
Kyrgyzstani men discuss their ‘abuse and torture’ by police Nick Duffy, Pink
News, 30 January 2014 www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/01/30/video-gay-kyrgyzstani-men-discuss-their-abuse-and-torture-by-police/ [accessed 2 Feb
2014] A report published
yesterday found that gay and bisexual men in Kyrgyzstan face blackmail,
beatings, illegal detentions and even rape from the police force. In the video, one
man, Demetra, recounts how police arrested him and put a plastic bag over his
head, before “abusing and torturing” him.
Another, Mikhail Kudryashov, was abducted by police, and was abused
with a beer bottle and metal coat hangers. Anna Kirey, a
researcher for Human Rights Watch, said: “The police know these men have too
much to lose if their friends or family or employers find out that they’re
gay. They know that they can do it with impunity”. Kyrgyzstan:
Reports of Torture, Extortion by Police Human Rights Watch,
Bishkek, November 23, 2013 www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/22/kyrgyzstan-reports-torture-extortion-police [accessed 23 Nov
2013] When the police
arrived, the officers immediately began to beat Marazykov, including on his
broken leg, the lawyer said. When the ambulance came, the police accompanied
Marazykov to a hospital but did not allow medical workers to treat him.
Instead, they continued to beat him, apparently to coerce him to identify
others who participated in the robbery, Marazykov’s lawyer said. The lawyer
also told Human Rights Watch that it was only after Marazykov lost
consciousness that the officers transferred him to a different hospital,
where his leg was operated on. The lawyer said
Marazykov told her that on November 13, the day after his operation, police
officers removed him from the hospital for questioning at the police station,
where they beat him on the head and on his broken leg for about two hours to
force him to answer their questions. Marazykov’s lawyer told Human Rights
Watch that after police took him back to the hospital, doctors found he had
suffered trauma to his head. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. A/55/44, paras.
70-75 (1999) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/kyrgyzstan1999.html [accessed 2 March
2013] 4. Subjects of
concern 74. The Committee
expresses its concern about the following: (a) The absence of a
definition of torture as provided in article 1 of the Convention in the penal
legislation currently in force in the State party, with the result that the
specific offence of torture is not punishable by appropriate penalties as
required by article 4, paragraph 2, of the Convention; (b) The numerous and
continuing reports of allegations of torture in breach of article 1 of the
Convention; and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
(sometimes involving children) by law enforcement personnel, contrary to
article 16 of the Convention; (c) Although the
State party has responded in some instances, there is an apparent failure
generally to provide prompt, impartial and full investigation into
allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, as well as a failure generally to prosecute, where appropriate,
the alleged perpetrators; (d) The insufficient
guarantees for independence of the judiciary, particularly in respect of
renewable-term appointments made by the President; (e) The use of
amnesty laws that might extend to torture in some cases. 5. Recommendations 75. The Committee
recommends that: (a) The State party
amend its domestic penal law to include the crime of torture, consistent with
the definition in article 1 of the Convention, and supported by an adequate
penalty; (b) In view of the
numerous reports of allegations of torture and ill-treatment by
law-enforcement personnel, the State party take all necessary effective steps
to prevent these events from occurring; (c) In order to
ensure that the perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment do not enjoy
impunity, the State party ensure the investigation and, where appropriate,
the prosecution of all those accused of having committed such acts, and
ensure that amnesty laws exclude torture from their reach; (d) The State party
continue its reforms in the police, prosecution and judicial institutions to
ensure that each is sensitive to their obligations under the Convention; in
particular, urgent steps should be taken to ensure the centrality and
independence of the judiciary in the penal system, particularly with
reference to limited renewable-term appointments, so as to bring them into
line with the 1985 Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary and
the 1990 Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors; (e) The State party
take measures to improve prison conditions, taking into account the 1955
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners; (f) Military places
of detention and prisons be supervised to ensure that inmates are not
maltreated and they, as should everyone, can be represented by counsel at
their trials; Kyrgyzstan:
Investigate, Prosecute Police Abuse Human Rights Watch,
Berlin, 14 November 2012 www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/14/kyrgyzstan-investigate-prosecute-police-abuse [accessed 3 February
2013] A local human
rights group, Spravedlivost (Justice), said eight detainees with whom they
spoke at the temporary detention facility in Jalalabad alleged that on
November 6, 2012, over a dozen police officers beat them and other inmates.
In some cases the police stripped the detainees naked and humiliated them while
searching for prohibited items such as mobile phones. During her own visit to
the facility following the episode, the regional ombudsman told Human Rights
Watch that she spoke with all 42 detainees in the facility at the time and
that 37 of them alleged that they had been beaten by police on that day. “Nothing can
justify police stripping detainees naked and beating them,” said Hugh
Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“Searching for mobile phones, other personal effects, or any contraband
prohibited in detention may never be a cover for abuse. The prosecutor
general’s office should open a criminal investigation immediately.” On November 13
Spravedlivost sent a letter to the prosecutor general asking her to
personally oversee an investigation into the allegations, ensure that the
eight detainees who came forward are not subject to further abuse, and see that any law enforcement officers named
by detainees are suspended pending a full investigation. The letter states
that police “brutally beat prisoners on the head, faces, in the kidneys.…
[They] stripped [the detainees] naked and forced them to run. One of the
prisoners said that officers strangled him.” The letter also states that
police humiliated detainees during the search and highlighted the allegations
of one of the detainees who said that an officer put a human waste bucket on
his head. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT Torture and other
ill-treatment persisted, despite the development of a comprehensive national programme on combating torture, based on the
recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, and the adoption of
a law on the establishment of a National Centre for the Prevention of torture
and other ill-treatment. The Special
Rapporteur reported in February that incidents of torture and other
ill-treatment to extract confessions “remained widespread”. He further
observed, “that, in practice, there is no clear procedure in place
prescribing the measures to be taken by courts should evidence appear to have
been obtained through torture or ill-treatment. Furthermore, in practice,
there appears to be no instruction to the courts with regard to implementing
that rule or ordering an immediate, impartial and effective investigation if
the rule is violated.” He noted that in
contrast to the actions taken and statements made by the current and former
Presidents and the Prosecutor General, he had not heard of any instructions
“communicated by the responsible officials of the Ministry of the Interior
[Ministry of Internal Affairs] to condemn torture and ill-treatment or to
declare unambiguously that torture and ill-treatment by police officers would
not be tolerated”. Anna Ageeva, a pregnant 18-year-old woman, was detained by
police officers in Bishkek on 11 September on suspicion of murder and held
incommunicado for three days in Sverdlovsk District police station. During
this time, she alleged that police officers dragged her by her hair,
handcuffed her to a radiator and kicked and punched her in the stomach and
kidneys to force her to confess to the murder of another young woman. A
lawyer from the NGO Kylym Shamy
submitted a complaint about the torture to the Sverdlovsk District
Prosecutor. Three other suspects, including 17-year-old Aidiana
Toktasunova, also detained in relation to the same
murder, similarly complained to the District Prosecutor’s Office that police
officers had tortured them to extract confessions. The Ministry of Internal
Affairs dismissed the torture allegations as “absurd” and stated that their
investigations had found no evidence of any wrong-doing by police officers.
The District Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation into the
allegations in October. In November, the
human rights organization Spravedlivost (Justice)
wrote to the Prosecutor General requesting that she personally supervise an
investigation into allegations that eight detainees in the centre for temporary detention (IVS) in Jalal-Abad had
been ill-treated by over a dozen police officers. Spravedlivost
had visited the IVS after being alerted to the violations by relatives of
some of the detainees. The detainees
reported that police officers beat them in the face, skull and body. They
stripped the detainees naked and forced them to run. The regional Ombudsman
visited the IVS two days after Spravedlivost and
met with all 42 detainees at the facility, 37 of whom confirmed that they had
been ill-treated. In turn she asked the Regional Prosecutor’s Office to
investigate these allegations. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also
conducted an internal investigation, but claimed to have found no evidence of
any ill-treatment. While arbitrary
arrests of mainly ethnic Uzbeks appeared to have become less frequent in
2012, reports persisted of serious human rights violations committed against
Uzbeks in relation to ongoing investigations into the June 2010 violence and
its aftermath, including torture and other ill-treatment in detention, forced
confessions and unfair trials. In his February report, the Special Rapporteur
on torture expressed his concerns that “serious human rights violations
committed in the context of [these] investigations have continued unabated in
recent months” Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=kyrgyzstan+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 6 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/kyrgyzstan [accessed 3 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] Despite the
enactment of various reform measures, the judiciary is not independent and
remains dominated by the executive branch. Corruption among judges, who are
underpaid, is widespread. Defendants’ rights, including the presumption of
innocence, are not always respected, and there are credible reports of
violence against suspects during arrest and interrogation. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61657.htm [accessed 3 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61657.htm [accessed 3 February
2013] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, police and SNB forces employed them. At
times police beat detainees and prisoners to extract confessions. Conditions
for pretrial detainees remained poor. In September the human rights ombudsman
expressed concern over a number of incidents involving abuse of detainees,
blaming the abuse on corruption and a low level of professionalism among jail
and police officials. On August 22,
police Special Forces units beat 30 inmates in a pretrial facility in Karakol for up to 5 hours. A human rights nongovernmental
organization (NGO) investigation concluded authorities carried out the
beating to intimidate certain prisoners who had assumed a leadership role
among inmates. Several prisoners sustained bodily injuries. One detainee
announced a hunger strike and sutured his mouth to protest the assaults. An
official investigation into the incident was ongoing at year's end. On September 10,
three minors in a pretrial facility near Voznesenovka
village sewed their mouths shut to protest alleged abuse of other detainees
by police special forces. Also in September
human rights activists reported that police beat 15-year-old Sukhrab Rakhmanov while he was
in a pretrial facility in Jalalabad. Following complaints by human rights
activists, authorities opened an investigation into the incident, but later
closed the case after Rakhmanov's mother withdrew
abuse charges against police officials. According to Spravedlivost,
a human rights NGO in Jalalabad, the abuse charges
were withdrawn under pressure from police and prosecutor's office officials. Rakhmanov remained in custody at year's end. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- Kyrgyz
Republic", http://gvnet.com/torture/KyrgyzRepublic.htm, [accessed
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