Two lawsuits were filed against the well-known Kazakh human rights activist, Elena Semenova, who is involved in protecting the rights of prisoners. According to the first lawsuit, the plaintiff is the colony УК-1612 (a strict regime colony) in Kostanay. In the second lawsuit, the plaintiff is the deputy chief for medical and preventive work of the same colony, Gulmizra Myrzaly. Both lawsuits are about defending honor and dignity.
As Elena Semenova told ACCA’s correspondent, the reason for filing a lawsuit was her posts on the social network Facebook.
So, in the publication dated October 26, 2019, the human rights activist wrote that a public organization “We are Against Torture”, of which she is the head, received a collective complaint from 30 convicts about mass unlawful actions on the part of employees of the institution УК-1612. The post was illustrated by screenshots of complaints of prisoners, as well as videos. In one of the videos, prisoners sew uniforms for prison staff. At the same time, they told on the video that they were forced to buy fabric for the uniform at their own expense.
On January 6, 2020 on her Facebook page, Semenova noted that on December 31, 2019, she had sent a complaint to the Prosecutor’s office of Kostanay region about the mass hunger strike of convicts in the institution УК-1612. The hunger strike, as it follows from her post, was held in protest against the fact that no one reacted to the complaints of 30 convicts.
On January 21, 2020, there was a post about the mass poisoning of convicts in the institution УК-1612.
“According to the convicts and relatives, on January 19, several convicts became ill. The temperature rose, vomiting began, pains in the stomach started in the morning. The number of sick prisoners increased significantly on January 20. The medical unit was full of convicts,” Semenova said then.
In its statement of claim, the leadership of the colony УК-1612 indicated that all the information provided by the human rights activist could not be confirmed.
“The information, contained in the articles, caused a negative public outcry, a false idea that the plaintiff, being a state body executing the punishment of convicts, carries out it with gross violations of the current legislation, which damages the plaintiff’s reputation, and also forms a negative public attitude towards criminal executive activities of the plaintiff. In accordance with paragraph 1 of article 143 of the Civil Code, a citizen or legal entity has the right to demand in court a refutation of information defaming his honor, dignity or business reputation, if the disseminator of such information does not prove that it is true,” the statement of claim says.
The colony’s administration requires that Semenova publish a refutation of all the above articles within 10 calendar days.
As regards the second plaintiff, Gulmizra Myrzaly, in her statement of claim, she demanded that Semenova refute the post (dated January, 21), as well as recover from the human rights activist in favor of the plaintiff the legal costs of paying the state fee in the amount of $5.8, and the bank’s commission of 44 cents.
Recall, Elena Semenova began her advocacy work with the protection of people who took mortgages. Then her activities began to cover the rights of prisoners. Semenova, in her own words, has repeatedly received threats. In 2018, they tried to set her house on fire. In late January 2019, the police of Pavlodar used physical force against the human rights defender. This incident caused Amnesty International to defend her.
We also note that Kostanay region is one of three regions leading in crimes qualified under the article “Torture”. So, according to the data on the Map of Criminal Offenses portal created by the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records under the General Prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, only in January in Kostanay region, 6 criminal cases of torture were registered.
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