In Kazakhstan, due to the state of emergency introduced because of the coronavirus, prisoners, serving sentences in penitentiary institutions, are deprived of visits with relatives and friends.
As Kazakh human rights activists, specializing in protecting the rights of prisoners, told ACCA, today no one is allowed into the colony and prison, even members of the public monitoring commissions (PMCs) and the national preventive mechanism (NPM).
“NPMs are not allowed in those regions or cities where quarantine is declared. NPMs with the Bureau did not enter the colony in the post-quarantine period. NPM was given a recommendation, and in fact, an instruction – to postpone all visits to the moment when quarantines across the country are lifted. This applies to planned visits. If there is information about torture, special visits are still possible,” Andrey Grishin (an employee of the International Bureau for Human Rights in Kazakhstan) said to ACCA.
This information was also confirmed by the Executive Director of the Public Fund “Charter for Human Rights”, Zhemis Turmagambetova. According to her, all visits of prisoners were canceled due to quarantine. She also added that there are no infections with coronavirus in the Kazakh colonies, since these are closed institutions.
“Prisoners are provided with protective means whenever possible. In many institutions, convicts began to sew masks,” Turmagambetova added.
In turn, human rights activist, Elena Semenova, said that thanks to quarantine in the colonies, prisoners have work, they sew medical masks in two shifts.
“On the other hand, employees, taking advantage of the fact that dates are forbidden, start to mess around,” Semenova said. “Not in all colonies, employees wear masks. At the same time, they have free access to convicts and free movement out of prison. In some institutions, only yesterday they issued masks to convicts. In general, it would be more correct for employees to be quarantined during quarantine. In case of illness, the consequences can be horrific.”
Meanwhile, the press service of the Criminal Executive System Committee of Kazakhstan said that sewing masks for prisoners is a great opportunity to earn some money to pay off their claims, but also a way to reduce the sentence. As an example, the Criminal Executive Committee cites the story of convicted Artem, who is serving a sentence in an average security institution AP-162/3 in Pavlodar.
“On behalf of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Erlan Turgumbaev, convicts who, sewed the largest number of masks, were encouraged. Convicted Artem is one of the first to start working in a sewing workshop for producing protective masks. To date, he has already sewn more than 7000 masks. Artem is 37 years old. At large, his retired parents are waiting for him. As he admits, he sews masks easily and quickly. For the work, all convicts get salary. Artem is grateful for the provided work, thereby he helps his family and partially repays his lawsuit. As he notes, he has become one step closer to freedom,” the Criminal Executive Committee said in its statement.
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