According to the 2021 Annual Report of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture, in nine out of ten cases, torture is used by police officers to force people to confess to a crime.
The authors of the report note that persons suspected of committing crimes involving criminal liability for crimes against property (theft, etc.) are more often subjected to torture.
“Victims of torture do not file complaints because they are not sure of the guarantees of safety and protection from subsequent reprisals. This fact has been repeatedly emphasized by representatives of international human rights organizations,” the document says.
On October 28, 2021, a new edition of the Criminal Code was adopted, according to which the concept of “torture” is defined as “causing physical or mental suffering to any person in order to obtain information or confession from him or another person; punish him for an act that he or another person has committed or of which he is suspected; as well as to intimidate or compel him or another person to commit certain acts, or for a reason based on discrimination of any nature, committed by an official or at his instigation, with his knowledge or tacit consent”, the upper threshold of the sanction for the commission of this crime may be imposed by a court in the form of imprisonment for a term of ten to twelve years.
After the reform, in 2021, the institution of initiating/refusing to initiate a criminal case was returned. So, according to the current criminal legislation, on the basis of the information entered into the automated information system “Unified Register of Crimes” (hereinafter – AIS “URC”), a decision is made to initiate or refuse to initiate a criminal case no later than 10 days after registration.
For the period 2020-2021, the Prosecutor General’s Office registered 319 statements on the facts of torture.
“The problem of the lack of proper investigation existed before. Thus, an analysis of the statistics of the General Prosecutor’s Office in recent years revealed that in more than 90% of cases decisions were made to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings on allegations of torture,” the authors of the report note.
In 2021, the prosecution authorities registered 73 reports of torture, and more than half of the cases (70 percent) were closed. Of which:
- three criminal cases were reclassified to other articles,
- one criminal case sent to court,
- in nine criminal cases, it was refused to initiate a criminal case due to the absence of corpus delicti in the act.
The General Prosecutor’s Office of the Kyrgyz Republic terminated 4 criminal cases, one was merged with another case in the URC (the main case was sent to court). The State Committee for National Security stopped 48 criminal cases on torture, 8 are in progress, and 9 have been sent to the prosecutor’s office to study the issue of suspension. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Bishkek garrison closed one case of torture.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, in 2021, the judicial authorities did not consider criminal cases under Article 137 of the new Criminal Code.
According to the data of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic, in the period from 2018 to 2021, courts at first instance considered three criminal cases related to torture and one civil case related to compensation for material and moral damage to a victim of torture.
“From the response received, it follows that no generalization of judicial practice in these cases was carried out,” the authors of the report summarize.
