In Kyrgyzstan, judicial corruption is being investigated

After the introduction of the new Criminal Code in Kyrgyzstan, the number of appeals to the Ombudsman Institute has increased dramatically. At the same time, the Institute began a large study of the corruption of judges.

In the eight months of this year, five convicts serving life sentences appealed to the Ombudsman Institute with complaints of unlawful court decisions. Such data was voiced in an interview with ACCA by the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic Tokon Mamytov. All who addressed to the Ombudsman were convicted of murder.

“Two of them have been serving sentences for more than 20 years. They went through all the courts. Addressing to us, they, through their lawyers, present facts that indicate that they are not involved in the crimes for which they have been convicted. All this, of course, needs to be carefully checked. However, no one should be in prison if he/she is not guilty,” the Ombudsman says.

According to him, in these cases the Ombudsman Institute is now preparing its own appeal to the Prosecutor General.

“We intend to provide the prosecutor with all the available facts. On their basis, the department will have to consider the possibility of reviewing these criminal cases due to newly discovered circumstances. From our side, we will continue the analysis, since it is possible that there are other similar facts,” the Ombudsman said.

Mamytov also noted that, on the whole, the analysis of citizens’ appeals to the Office of the Ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan shows that the largest number of applications are complaints against court sentences and lack of access to fair justice.

“The number of such appeals has increased significantly since January of this year. This followed after the introduction of new Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure and other codes in Kyrgyzstan. Maybe this is a coincidence, but I think that the coming one or two years will allow our institute to identify the true reasons for such a sharp increase in the number of applications for the above violations,” Tokon Mamytov said.

At the same time, the Ombudsman refrained from evaluating the work of the judicial system of Kyrgyzstan.

“The Ombudsman’s Institute did not carry out such work purposefully, and therefore we cannot confidently speak on this issue. There are investigations of non-governmental organizations, the results of which suggest that the corruption component in the judicial system remains at a high level. We cannot confirm or refute this information, since we started monitoring it only on September 1 of this year. The order has been issued, special methodological questionnaires have been developed, work has just begun. The methodology is developed in conjunction with international organizations,” he says.

Tokon Mamytov believes that today there is reason to talk about positive changes regarding the independence of the courts from the authorities and law enforcement agencies.

“Now we can say that in our country, in contrast to previous periods, there is already an independent court. There are good precedents: the review of the case of Omurbek Tekebaev, the release of Marat Sutalinov, the acquittal of Bekbolot Talgarbekov. Previously, we could not even imagine that such a thing is possible,” he explained his point of view.

It should be noted that a total of 347 people have been sentenced to life sentences in the Republic at present. They are serving their sentences in correctional facilities with a special regime, which provides for increased supervision of their behavior and complete isolation from society.

They are monitored day and night, as it is believed that they, in comparison with other categories of prisoners, pose an increased social danger. Moreover, there is only one prison with a special regime in the country, it’s the Institution No.19, the infrastructure of which can contain 128 convicted persons. The majority of convicts of this category are serving sentences not in specialized institutions.

According to the annual reports of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture of the Kyrgyz Republic, the conditions of detention and the treatment of prisoners for life imprisonment often turn out to be much worse than for other categories of convicts and below the international human rights standards.

According to some human rights activists, in Kyrgyzstan, life in custody can be considered as cruel and inhuman treatment of people. At the same time, under the new Criminal and Penal Execution Code, people deprived of their liberty for life cannot be released ahead of time.

Tokon Mamytov said that the Ombudsman Institute systematically monitors the situation with the observance of human rights in prisons in the Republic.

“This is done by conducting various monitoring, inspections and investigations into allegations and appeals within the powers of the Ombudsman and in accordance with the Law “On the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic”. Recently, we have organized a new direction in our activity, when monitoring, studies and research are carried out jointly with non-governmental organizations, as well as with the involvement of other representatives of public at large. Moreover, the objective monitoring of correctional institutions of the penal system has become the main component of the activities of the Ombudsman Institute. A significant part of the recommendations proposed to the state bodies based on the results of these monitoring was aimed at bringing the conditions of persons sentenced to life imprisonment to minimum standards,” Mamytov emphasized.