The Coalition Against Torture sent a letter to the State Penitentiary Service (SPS) with a request to provide information on the deaths of accused and defendants in penal institutions with data on the causes of death.
So, according to the State Penitentiary Service, from January to April this year, 22 prisoners died in jails. In most cases, the cause of death was nonspecific somatic diseases (14 persons).
Thus, according to the State Penitentiary Service, there are no COVID-19 infected among the prisoners as of April.
“On July 20, the coalition sent a new request to the State Penitentiary Service with a request for information on deaths for the period from January 1 to July 20, 2020. The reason for this concern was that information appeared in the media about 75 employees of the State Penitentiary Service infected with coronavirus. It would be logical to assume that if workers get sick, then prisoners get sick too. We hope for a prompt and detailed response from the State Penitentiary Service, ”the Coalition said.
As it turned out, the State Penitentiary Service does not yet have data on deaths in May, June, and July of this year.
Recall that on July 22, human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov died in one of the colonies. The State Penitentiary Service said that it was not due to COVID-19. It was officially announced that the human rights activist died of community-acquired pneumonia, but the test for COVID-19 was not done.
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