Torture is used in prisons of Kazakhstan. Despite numerous statements by the authorities that this information is not true and that there are no torture cells in prisons and pre-trial detention centers, the public is receiving more and more evidence to the contrary. So the well-known TV presenter Dinara Egeubayeva said that two minors are being held in the pre-trial detention center of the city of Taldykorgan, who are being tortured with a red-hot iron.
Live on Instagram, Egeubayeva also spoke with Sayat Adilbekuly, who managed to get out of the dungeons of the pre-trial detention center in Almaty.
According to Sayat Adilbekuly, on the morning of January 5, he went from the suburbs to the center of Almaty in search of medicine for his little daughter, and during this sortie he was injured.
“At the entrance to the city, aggressive people caught loners and forcibly put them into cars that were driving to the central square. I was also forcibly put in a car. I asked these people to drop me off because I needed to get to the pharmacy, but they didn’t let me out,” Sayat said live.
So Sayat ended up on the square where the rally was held. During the dispersal of the protesters, he received a gunshot wound. By some miracle, he reached the house, where he lost consciousness, after which he was hospitalized in the city hospital No. 7, where he underwent surgery to save his kidney. It was on January 5.
On January 8, armed men in uniform came to the hospital ward.
“They ordered me to stand up and raise my hands. I stood up, and they immediately hit me in the chest, then hit me on the head, demanding to say where my phone was,” says Sayat. “They didn’t show any documents, didn’t answer my questions. Then I was taken out of the hospital. While walking along the corridor, they told me, ‘Step to the left, step to the right – we will shoot on the spot.’ I and 30 other people were taken outside and laid face down on the cold asphalt. If someone tried to find out what was going on, they immediately kicked him in the head.”
Then, according to Adilbekuly, they were put into an incommodious car for prisoners and taken in an unknown direction.
“It was only later that I found out that we were brought to the detention center No. 18 in Almaty. We were taken to a room. Everyone, who couldn’t walk, was beaten, dragged by the head on the floor. We were interrogated in that room: name, surname, date of birth, where we were wounded. All this was recorded on a video camera. After the interrogation, we were taken out into the corridor and placed against the wall. They even put those who were wounded on both legs. Those, who couldn’t stand and fell, were severely beaten.”
Then the detainees were divided into cells where they were laid on the floor, despite the fact that many of them were dressed only in hospital gown, and some were completely naked. At the same time, according to Sayat, the guards threatened, “If someone gets up from the floor and lies or sits on the bed, they will greatly regret it.” Two hours later, all detainees were raised to their feet and they spent the whole night standing on their feet.
“If the guards noticed that someone was leaning on the bed, they went into the cell and beat everyone with batons,” says Sayat. “From January 10 to January 12, they began to take us for interrogations. If someone didn’t confess to participating in the riots, then he was beaten. I went through 6 interrogations. At the same time, I signed the protocol of interrogation only at the last interrogation. Then I was taken to the investigator, he printed out the protocol of detention, dated January 12. At first I wanted to object, but then I remembered the state in which those, who dared to take such a step, were brought. I am a disabled person of the third group, plus I was after surgery. Therefore, I signed this protocol, so that they would no longer touch me and beat me. On January 13, a man in uniform came to us. He said that there would be a trial on January 14, but before that, prosecutors would visit us. “If any of you say that you were beaten or tortured here, you will regret it. The prosecutors will leave, but we will stay.”
According to Sayat, he saw a state-provided defender for the first time only on January 12. Until that time, all interrogations took place without the participation of a lawyer. The second time, he saw the lawyer, was already in court.
“The prosecutor read out the accusation that I participated in the riots on January 6, looted, killed, raped,” says Adilbekuly. “I objected that I didn’t participate, because I was at that time in intensive care after the surgery. To which the judge said that since I was wounded, it means that I was in the forefront of those who participated in the riots, and made the decision – arrest for 2 months in a pre-trial detention center. None of those who were in the same cell with me were acquitted. It was not a court, but a show.”
On January 17, doctors from the city hospital No. 4 came to the pre-trial detention center. They pulled out the catheters from Sayat’s body, which were sticking out after the surgery. At the same time, the holes from the catheter were not cleansed and not sewn up. With these wounds, Sayat stayed in the pre-trial detention center until January 25, as a result of which an infection got into his body.
On January 25, after the fuss made by Sayat’s relatives on social networks, he was released from the pre-trial detention center.
Sayat also recalls that on January 18, the defendants were transferred under the supervision of the pre-trial detention center’s staff. Until that time, he said, other structures dealt with them. Only after the transfer, mattresses and bedding appeared in the cell, the prisoners began to be fed and beatings had stopped. But until that day, it was a real hell for the defendants.
“Zhasulan Amangeldinov was in our cell. When he was brought in, forensic experts recorded minor abrasions and beatings. He also had an injury to his left eye. After the trial, he was taken away somewhere, and returned after 4-5 hours, barely alive. He said that they poured boiling water over him. Boiling water was poured directly onto his clothes. He asked to take off his clothes, because he was in great pain. When we began to undress him, the top layer of his skin peeled off along with his clothes. It was a terrible sight. Thank God I didn’t get into that room. That’s probably why I’m alive,” says Sayat, trying to fight back tears.
On January 25, together with Sayat, 7 more people were released on bail.
As ACCA has already reported, Azamat Batyrbaev was tortured in the pre-trial detention center of Taldykorgan. He was not only beaten, but also tortured with a red-hot iron.
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