In Kazakhstan, a transgender was subjected to violence in prison

Victoria Berkhodjaeva, a transgender woman serving a sentence in the female colony in Almaty region, was subjected to violent actions by a special forces officer of the National Security Committee. Berkhodjaeva said this in the interview with the Kazakh newspaper “Vremya” [“Time”].

Victoria Berkhodjaeva, who was named Karimzhan Berkhodjaev before the sex change operation, was detained in August 2016 when she received $ 10.000 from another transgender. According to the police, Berkhodjaeva extorted 33.000 US dollars from the transgender, promising to tell her lover that she used to be a man. However, the victim of blackmail had resort to the police for help and Berkhodjaeva was detained. In March 2017, she was sentenced to 7 years in prison with confiscation of property. However, the defendant pleaded not guilty.

“I consider myself innocent. It was ordinary, banal jealousy, because of the rivalry between us. The conflict arose because of our mutual lover,” she told reporters in the court.

It is worth noting that at the time of her arrest, Victoria did not yet have documents confirming the status of sex change and she was threatened to serve her sentence in a male colony.

However, by the end of the trial, the documents were received and Victoria was sent to the women’s colony.

According to Victoria, from the moment she was detained, she has been and is undergoing attempts of violence by security forces. “Three years ago, as soon as the investigation on my case began, I was molested by the guards and police of the Bostandyk Police department, who conducted the investigation,” she told the newspaper “Vremya” in the interview. “They made me have oral sex with them, asked to show the genitals. I am a full-fledged woman, the documents indicate the female gender, and therefore I am at the female colony. I wrote dozens of statements about the facts of harassment, but my arguments were not taken into account just because I am a transgender. After the court verdict, I was sent to prison.”

Then, according to her, she was sexually harassed several times by a member of the special forces of the National Security Committee, a certain 45-year-old Sanya.

Berkhodjaeva wrote a statement and made a fuss in the media. Only after that she was recognized as a victim. According to her lawyer Ayman Umarova, Victoria is in constant fear, afraid that they will put pressure on her and that this case will not reach the court.

“We ask for the safety for Victoria and the witness. We also ask that the case be referred to the special prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, we fear that experts who examine her clothes will also be pressured,” Umarova told reporters.