Well-known Kazakh human rights activist Elena Semenova reported another fact of torture in a correctional institution. She announced this in her open appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan, to the Committee of the Penitentiary System and the Ombudsman.
According to Semenova, she visited the strict regime colony AK-159/6, located in the village of Dolinka in Karaganda region, to meet with convicts Manas Kapylbaev and Elnur Beisaliev. However, she was denied a meeting with Beisaliev.
“Manas Kapylbaev spoke in detail about what happened to him after the arrival at the beginning of the year, in quarantine period. They beat him severely, beat him on the heels, drowned him. All this was done by the quarantine manager named Azamat. The caretaker extorted money from the convict. On January 11, 2021, the mother of Manas transferred $ 116 to a certain citizen, and later the caretaker said that she needed to send another $ 267,” the human rights activist said in her appeal.
She also noted that, according to Kapylbaev, there is a sixth, so-called quarantine unit in the institution, where newly arrived convicts are placed. In this unit there is a prisoner Ivan Verle, who was also severely beaten by the colony officers.
“He needs urgent medical assistance; his arm is injured. He cannot bend his arm; a tumor has appeared. He doesn’t receive medical assistance. The convict received the injury about 10 days ago. The convict Verle is not given the opportunity to call his relatives and inform about what is happening and ask for help. The most terrible thing, that the convicted Manas Kapylbaev told about during a short-term meeting, was the behavior of the so-called medic Alina. I cannot imagine who is her mother, and whether she is mother herself. The convict Kapylbaev also needs medical assistance. He has metal objects in his stomach. He has abdominal pain, but he is not provided with medical assistance either. The surgeon examined the convict and said that he needed an operation, but, as the convict said, the medic Alina told him, “You will die here.” This so-called medic Alina beat the convict in the face, kicked him, threw objects at him…”, writes Semenova.
As the human rights activist notes in her letter, the administration of the colony, before allowing Kapylbaev to meet with her, ordered him to keep silent about the lawlessness taking place within the walls of the institution.
“The convicted Kapylbaev, understanding and realizing all the danger, was not afraid to tell the whole truth about the torture against himself and other convicts, and ask for help. For them, this was the only chance, there are no other ways to report torture in the institution. The convict Kapylbaev and I understood how our conversation could affect him and other convicts, but they had no other choice. When leaving, they tried to take away the notes that I wrote down. The employee tried to call someone and find out something. I told him, it was not worth wasting neither mine nor his time. Let them call anyone, draw up an administrative protocol, but that won’t help. Then I was allowed to leave the institution. Taking into account and realizing the seriousness of what is happening, I ask you to take measures urgently,” Semenova writes in her appeal.
The strict regime colony AK-159/6 regularly appears in the news reports with torture problems. Last year, ACCA informed about the head of the operational department of this institution, Erbolat Askarov, who received two and a half years of restraint of freedom for torturing 13 prisoners.
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