Kazakhstan: prisoner claims systematic torture

Another complaint of torture came from the general regime colony ИЧ-167/3, located in Chimkent. According to convict S. Ishankulov, after he was transported from Taraz to Chimkent, the employees of the correctional institution immediately beat him. This was reported by Kazakh human rights activist Elena Semenova.

“After the transfer, I was immediately placed in quarantine, three officers from this institution came there. We were told to line up and demanded that we put on red armbands with the inscription СДС [Leisure and sports section]. Everyone put on bands, but I refused. One of the employees began to swear, tore my clothes. After that, these officers took me to Ulan National Guard room, where there was a controller named Arystan. I was stripped naked, and an employee of the institution began to beat me with a rubber truncheon, which he took from the controller Arystan,” Semenova quotes the complaint of convicted Ishankulov.

It follows from the report that the torture didn’t end there, but rather intensified.

“He didn’t pay attention to my pleas and requests and that I was disabled. After that, these officers put me on a chair and continued to beat me on the heels and thighs. They didn’t pay attention to my cries of pain. All this was stated in my statements to the prosecutor of the city of Chimkent and the General Prosecutor. On February 20, 2021, on the fact of my beating, I and 9 others convicted were taken to the investigative isolation ward of Chimkent for investigative actions, but without any result. To date, these officers continue to beat me for my complaints. Since March 20, I have been in the medical unit because they beat me again. I earnestly ask you to intervene and protect me from the arbitrariness of the officers of the institution ИЧ-167/3,” Ishankulov asks in his letter.

It should be clarified that bands with the inscription СДС, СДП [Discipline and order section] or СПП [Crime prevention section] are issued to the members of the voluntary organizations of convicts. According to the director of Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights Yevgeny Zhovtis, this is “a method of combating the influence of the criminal environment in the institutions of the penal system that has survived since Soviet times. At the same time, convicts are obliged to be members of the voluntary organizations of convicts; this is supposedly an indicator of law-abiding behavior.

“According to the legislation on public associations, membership in them is exclusively voluntary. This follows from the name “voluntary organization”. Any conditionality of membership in a voluntary organization, as one of the grounds for changing the assessment of the degree of behavior, makes the principle of voluntariness, in essence, voluntary-compulsory,” explains Zhovtis.

It’s also worth noting that in Kazakhstan’s prisons, most of the prisoners refuse to be a member of the voluntary organizations of convicts, because, as a rule, the so-called “kozly” [“goats”] (one of the lowest prison castes) join these sections.

Below is what is said about this on the website of the Center for Assistance to Criminal Justice Reform “Prison and Freedom”.

“Kozly” [“goats”] are open employees of the camp administration, those who agreed to accept any position – the manager of the club, the librarian, the commandant of the prison. Those who put on these armbands, those who agreed to work for the cops, the administration calls “kozly” [“goats”]. They are “an asset”, “individuals who have firmly embarked on the path of correction”. Of course, the convicts treat them badly. Traitors are treated badly everywhere. And if we take into account in each colony between the administration and the prisoners there is a war – sometimes “cold”, and sometimes a real one – this attitude will become clear,” the article about prison castes says.

So, Ishankulov’s refusal to put on the band is quite understandable.

Meanwhile, correctional facility ИЧ-167/3 has repeatedly found itself in the center of torture scandals.

Let us remind you that in early February of this year, the relatives of the convicts serving their sentences in this colony organized a protest action near the gates of the institution. According to them, the employees of the colony beat the convicts and drive them to suicide.

For example, one of the protesters, Lunar Namazbaeva, said that her husband was illegally placed in the coldest cell of the disciplinary isolation ward, where he was kept without a blanket, without heating, without food.

Among the protesters was Khalmurad Ishankulov, the father of the convicted Ishankulov. He confirmed that the employees of the institution were abusing his son.

The relatives of the prisoners declared, “If the abuse of the convicts doesn’t stop and the perpetrators don’t suffer a fair punishment, we will turn to the President of the country for help.”