A 30-year-old man turned to human rights defenders for help. According to him, the police beat out of him a confession of involvement in drug trafficking. He doesn’t plead guilty.
At the end of February this year, in the city of Osh, police officers detained two young men on suspicion of involvement in the sale of drugs. During the search, they found 15.75 grams of cannabis.
“Young people reported that the drug was for their own use. However, the police officers didn’t believe them and took to the police station. There, according to one of the detainees, they began to force him to write a confession that he was allegedly engaged in sales. He refused. This was followed by severe beatings,” say human rights activists from One World (Bir Duino).
According to the man, he was beaten in the stomach, on the head, and kicked. One of the five officers strangled him. The beating continued throughout the night. Despite the fact that at night the detainee was supposed to be in the cell of the detention center, the police officers, using free access, took him out and continued the beatings.
“Later they said that during the examination, I should inform the doctor that supposedly everything was fine with my health. The next morning, they again demanded to take the blame upon myself and beat me again. During the interrogation, the lawyer wasn’t present. It lasted three days,” is an excerpt from the testimony of the detainee.
He remembered the name of one of the officers. He doesn’t know the names of the others, but he can identify them.
Human rights activists emphasize that torture and cruel treatment are often present in human rights practice in cases related to charges of storage and distribution of narcotic substances.
It’s worth noting that there is no criminal liability for the use of drugs in Kyrgyzstan, but the sale is punishable. So, at present, the man is charged with a crime under article 247 of part 2 “Illegal production of drugs, psychotropic substances and their analogues for the purpose of sale” of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. He faces up to 12 years in prison.
Leave feedback about this