The head of the detention center under the Department of Internal Affairs of Batken district, where serious violations had been found earlier, forbade the experts to conduct a second check. This was reported at the National Center for the Prevention of Torture of the Kyrgyz Republic.
On August 26, officers of the regional branch of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture of the Kyrgyz Republic in Batken and Jalal-Abad regions, Aigul Tabaldyeva and Alisher Ermatov, were unable to conduct an interim check of the conditions in the detention center under the Department of Internal Affairs of Batken district. On the instructions of the head of the temporary detention center, Major Erkin Borubaev, the representatives of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture of the Kyrgyz Republic were not allowed into the closed institution.
It should be noted that in June this year, during a sudden inspection of the temporary detention center, the experts revealed many violations. The cells of the isolation ward, designed for 22 people, were overcrowded (in fact, there were 26 detainees). The walking area was filled with trash cans, there was no daily cleaning with disinfectants, and there was no electricity or ventilation in the showers.
In addition, when examining the personal files of those detained in the isolation ward, there were 18 people who had been sitting for several months and even years. However, keeping people in a temporary detention center for more than 48 hours or ten days during a month is considered a violation of the law.
There were violations in terms of filling out questionnaires of detainees, conducting a search, storing expired medicines, and so on.
Concerning all these and other facts, the representatives of the National Center drew up an act and turned to the Prosecutor’s Office with a request to conduct an investigation, eliminate the violations and punish those responsible. However, there was no reaction. Moreover, during the second visit to the temporary detention center under the Department of Internal Affairs of Batken district, the inspectors were not allowed to enter the facility.
“After the Captain of the Department of Internal Affairs of Batken district, Asan Attokurov, contacted the head of the temporary detention center, Major Erkin Borubaev, and informed about the purpose of our visit, the latter forbade the inspection. He referred to the fact that 4 people, sitting in the isolation ward, were allegedly infected with the coronavirus. “Don’t let them pass! Let them do what they want!” Alisher Ermatov, head of the National Center office in Jalal-Abad region, quotes the head of the temporary detention center.”
The temporary detention center was unable to present the experts with documents confirming that these four detainees have this disease. How to explain why the sick are kept together with the healthy? They also denied access to the personal files of citizens. According to Captain Attokurov, the head of the temporary detention center will allow the inspection “only when he has free time”.
The National Center for the Prevention of Torture believes that Major Borubaev deliberately prevented the employees of the Center from performing their work and thereby violated Article 29 of the Law “On the National Center for the Prevention of Torture of the Kyrgyz Republic”.
“Apparently, the revealed violations and inhumane treatment of the detainees haven’t been eliminated, perhaps even new facts have emerged. That is why we were categorically forbidden to conduct a second check in the temporary detention center,” concluded Alisher Ermatov, stressing that due to the lack of prosecutorial supervision, the number of violations in the temporary detention center under the Department of Internal Affairs of Batken district is just increasing.
Employees of the regional offices of the National Center will send a new act to the supervisory body of Batken with a request to conduct a prosecutor’s investigation of all these violations, take measures to eliminate them and punish the officials who are guilty in this situation within the framework of the law.
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