The President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov signed a law according to which the head of state and deputies of the Parliament can henceforth bring photo and video equipment to prisons. The law will come into force on April 29 this year.
According to the Ombudsman’s Office, in terms of protecting the rights of prisoners, there are important amendments to part 1 of the article 453 of the Criminal Executive Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, namely the phrase “and the Ombudsman” has been replaced by “Ombudsman and his deputies, as well as authorized employees of the Ombudsman’s Office”.
“This amendment concerns the provision of unfettered access to closed institutions of the State Penitentiary Service, that is, without special permission from the administration of the State Penitentiary Service. And what is more important, not only the Ombudsman himself, but also his deputies, as well as authorized employees will be eligible for this access,” the Office commented.
Also, the amendments to the Criminal Executive Code allow for the unchecked carrying of audio and video recording equipment to the closed institutions of the State Penitentiary Service for certain categories of people.
“Bringing film, photo and video equipment in prisons and its use by the President, the Prime Minister, members of the Parliament and the Ombudsman are carried out without a special permission,” is a new content of part 2 of article 43 of the Criminal Executive Code.
In addition, part 3 of article 72 of the Criminal Executive Code of the Kyrgyz Republic was supplemented by the following paragraph: “Cancellation or change of the decision of a special commission of the state body of the penal system is made by the head of the state body of the penal system on the basis of a conclusion on the results of an internal investigation, a submission from the Prosecutor’s Office or a corresponding court decision”.
“Changes in the part of cancellation or amendment of the decision of the special commission concern ensuring the exercise by convicts of their constitutional right to appeal in court and in any other way. Since before the above changes were made to the Criminal Executive Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, the decisions of this commission couldn’t be appealed, which was a gross violation of the requirements of the Constitution,” the Ombudsman explained.
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