Kazakhstan: prison officer, who was threatening prisoners with rape, escaped prison

An amazing humanity was shown by Kazakh justice in relation to the head of the operational department of the institution AK-159/6 (a strict regime colony in the village of Dolinka in Karaganda region), Erbolat Askarov. For torture of prisoners, the court appointed him two and a half years of restraint of liberty.

This story began in April last year, when 13 prisoners were transferred to the AK-159/6 colony. It was they, who were tortured by the major, literally from the first minutes of being in the colony.

An officer of AK-159/6 forced them goose stepping, drowned in buckets of water, forced them to put their hands in the toilets and make rotatory movements there, and, of course, beat them.

He also took off pants of several prisoners and threatened to rape in harsh form if they did not plead guilty to violating the order of the security facility.

Unable to withstand such pressure, the prisoners wrote a complaint to the Coalition against Torture of Kazakhstan. On April 24, 2019, prosecutors came to the colony with a check. As a result of the investigation, a criminal case was initiated under the article “torture committed by a group of persons in a preliminary conspiracy”. Several prisoners were recognized as victims. For the duration of the investigation, they were all transferred for security reasons to the AK-159/1 institution in Karaganda.

By the way, at the same time, in April, it became known that troops were brought into the AK-159/6. According to Konstantin Gudauskas (the chairman of the public association “Coalition for the Protection of the Rights of Prisoners”), at the conference call of the Penitentiary System Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, information was heard about “self-mutilation among the special contingent” in the AK-159/6 colony. Allegedly, in order to prevent a disorder in the colony, the troops were brought. However, this information was refuted in the Penitentiary System Committee.

“Information has appeared on social networks that a “riot of convicts” is allegedly taking place in one of the colonies of Karaganda region. In this regard, the Criminal Executive System Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan reports that the videos were made from tactical and special exercises in the departments of the criminal executive system, the police in Karaganda region and the military unit of the National Guard on the basis of the AK-159/6 settlement in the village of Dolinka. In the AK-159/6 institution, the situation is stable. These events were planned at the beginning of this year. According to the approved plan, such exercises will be held during the year,” the Committee said then.

On September 13, the City court of Shakhtinsk chose a preventive measure in respect of the major Askarov in the form of two-month detention.

Note that the lawyer Pavel Rudavin, representing the interests of one of the beaten convicts, said then that the torture was arranged by a number of prison officials, and not one head of the department. Despite this, the other torture participants received the status of witnesses entitled to defense. To investigate the criminal case, an interdepartmental investigative and operational group was created, which included representatives of the national anti-corruption bureau and the Prosecutor’s office of Karaganda region.

At the stage of the court proceedings that took place in Shakhtinsk, the colony officer fully admitted his guilt and repented of his deed. This factor, as well as the presence of dependent young children, the lack of a criminal record and good characteristics at the place of residence allowed him to conclude a procedural agreement with the prosecutor.

At the trial of the major, which took place in Shakhtinsk, the judge of the City court, Aliya Sadykova, noted that the defendant did not have grounds for such mockery of the prisoners, since all 13 detainees did not make resistance and malicious disobedience to the institution’s officers.

“Despite this, the head of the operation department, Erbolat Askarov, upon the arrival of the convicts, began to use physical force against them, intimidated, forcing them to absolute obedience,” Sadykova emphasized.

However, the court did not begin to deprive the defendant of liberty, having sentenced him to 2.5 years of restraint of liberty. The court also ordered the convict to forced labor of 100 hours annually for the entire sentence. In addition, Askarov was banned from working in the penitentiary system for three years.