The US Department of State has published the report on human rights in Kyrgyzstan for 2019. It notes that prisoners in the republic continue to be held in harsh and life-threatening conditions, citizens are not immune from arbitrary arrests, and the judicial branch cannot boast of independence.
As noted in the report, although the government has taken steps to investigate, prosecute or punish officials who have committed human rights violations, especially those, who were involved in corruption, official impunity remained a problem.
“Despite the legislative prohibition of torture and other forms of cruel treatment and punishment, physical violence continued in prisons of the republic, including inhuman and degrading treatment,” the authors of the report note. “Defense attorneys, journalists, and human rights organizations reported cases of torture by the police and other law enforcement agencies.”
The State Department stresses that authorities tortured people to obtain confessions during criminal investigations.
“During the first six months of 2019, the Prosecutor General’s office registered 171 allegations of torture by government officials, including law enforcement agencies (127 cases), the State National Security Service (3 cases), and other officials. As a result, prosecutors opened 11 criminal cases: four cases of torture and seven cases of inhuman treatment,” the US Department of State reports. “The non-governmental organization “Voice of Freedom” played a central role in monitoring allegations of torture. “Voice of Freedom” was the main organizer of the Coalition Against Torture, a consortium of 18 non-governmental organizations that continued to work with the Prosecutor General’s office to monitor complaints of torture. The Coalition also received complaints of torture and transferred them to the Prosecutor General’s office in order to facilitate the investigation. However, according to members of the Coalition Against Torture, the cases that the human rights organization presented against the alleged torturers did not lead to their conviction.”
The report notes that when prosecutors tried law enforcement officers on torture charges, prosecutors, judges, and defendants usually raised procedural and material objections. These objections delayed cases, often leading to outdated evidence, and, in the end, leading to the closure of the case.
“During the year, NGOs reported that the courts regularly included evidence allegedly caused by torture in the evidence. According to “Voice of Freedom”, investigators often needed two weeks or more to consider allegations of torture. By this time, evidence of torture was no longer visible,” the report said. “Defense attorneys submitted allegations of torture during the trial, but the courts usually rejected them. In some cases, detainees, who filed complaints of torture, subsequently renounced their testimony, reportedly due to intimidation by law enforcement officials.”
“Prison conditions were harsh and sometimes life-threatening due to lack of food and medicine, poor medical care, lack of heat and cruel treatment. Physical conditions: places of pre-trial detention and temporary detention were especially crowded; conditions and cruel treatment, in general, were worse than in prisons,” the report said.
Authorities usually kept juveniles separate from adults, but grouped them in crowded temporary detention centers when other facilities were unavailable.
Experts reported that prisoners, who were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or extremism, were not properly separated from the population. Convicts sometimes stayed in pre-trial detention facilities while they appealed their cases.
Nongovernmental organizations reported that, in some cases, prison gangs controlled prison administration and discipline, as prison officials lacked the capacity and experience to manage the institution. In some cases, gangs controlled items that could be taken to prison, such as food and clothing, while prison officials looked the other way.
According to NGOs, the authorities did not try to dismantle these groups because they were too strong and believed that their elimination could lead to chaos. Some prisoners indicated that prison officials left prison order and security for prison gangs or the prisoners themselves, that led to cases of violence and intimidation among prisoners.
Prisoners reported that prison officials did not give them access to adequate medical care in prisons, including medicines.
NGOs reported that police were persecuting vulnerable defendants from whom, they thought, they could receive a bribe. Observers claimed that police persecuted ethnic Uzbeks by planting religious literature on them, and then accused them of possession of prohibited religious materials.
Torture abuse experts have stated that law enforcement agencies often do not report that they detained a person in order to extend harsh interrogations and torture. Although the law requires investigators to notify the detainee’s family of the detention within 12 hours.
As in previous years, human rights organizations noted cases where authorities denied lawyers access to arrested minors, often detained minors without notifying their parents and interrogating them without the presence of parents or lawyers, despite laws prohibiting this practice.
The law allows the use of house arrest for certain categories of suspects. Reports indicated that law enforcement officials selectively enforced the law by imprisoning individuals suspected of minor crimes and not prosecuting those suspected of more serious crimes.
Civil society often reported long periods of pre-trial detention of detainees. Political fraud, complicated legal procedures, poor access to lawyers, and limited investigation capabilities often extended the defendants’ detention to 60 days, while some were legally detained for up to one year. The country had seven pre-trial detention’s places, which contained about 2500 people.
Although the Constitution and laws of the republic provide for an independent judiciary, judges are subject to influence and corruption.
Numerous sources, including NGOs, lawyers, government officials and private individuals, have claimed that some judges paid bribes to obtain positions. Many lawyers have stated that judges everywhere take bribes.
Numerous NGOs reported widespread violations of the right to a fair trial, including coercion to testify, torture, deny access to a lawyer and convictions in the absence of sufficiently convincing evidence or despite justifiable evidence.
International observers reported threats and acts of violence against defendants and lawyers in and around the courtroom, as well as intimidation of court judges by relatives and friends of the victims.
The US Department of State also noted the inability of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers to effectively implement the law on criminal punishment of officials convicted of corruption.
“Officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Civil society and the media have reported numerous cases of government corruption throughout the year. The practice of law enforcement officials at all levels taking bribes to avoid investigation or prosecution is a serious problem,” the report said.
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