Kazakhstan: Tajik citizen is tortured in prison

According to the complaints of the imprisoned citizen of Tajikistan Mirmahmad Kurbonov against the employees of the colony with charges of bullying and torture, three criminal cases were initiated, but none of the perpetrators was punished.

Mirmahmad Kurbonov, although he is a citizen of Tajikistan, has been living in Kazakhstan for a long time.

In September 2017, Kurbonov was sentenced on charges of robbery to 8 years in prison with serving a sentence in a general regime colony.

However, in August 2018, Kurbonov again appeared before the court on charges of disobeying the legal requirements of the administration of the penitentiary institution.

The administration of the general regime colony ОВ-156/18, located in the East Kazakhstan region, accused convict Kurbonov of 12 facts of violations of the regime:

– hid the stationery knife blade in his things (for which he was placed in solitary confinement cell for a month);

– refused to go to work for two hours without paying for the improvement of the territory of the correctional institution, referring to the state of health (he was reprimanded for this);

– prayed namaz during breakfast (for this violation, he was punished for two months in solitary confinement cell);

– being alone, he inflicted bodily harm on himself despite (citation) “requests from the staff of the institution not to do it” (he was reprimanded for this);

– after a month of being in solitary confinement cell, he cut his abdomen with a blade (citation) “for no reason, he refused medical assistance” (for this violation of the regime, he was placed in a disciplinary cell for 15 days);

– being in the medical and sanitary part of the institution, he didn’t sleep after the “retreat” command according to the order of day, turned on and watched TV without permission in the room for political and educational work (he was reprimanded);

– a week after that, he didn’t sleep again after the “retreat” command, instead he played backgammon and watched TV (for this repeated violation of the regime, he was placed in a disciplinary cell for 10 days);

– when placed in solitary confinement cell, he categorically refused to wear the uniform of the disciplinary isolator. In addition, being in the solitary confinement cell, he began to bang his head against the wall, inflicting bodily harm on himself; (citation) “to the legal demands of the administration of the institution to stop illegal actions, he didn’t react”.

“Convict Kurbonov, not wishing to embark on the path of correction, realizing the actual nature and social danger of his actions, with a direct intent aimed at malicious disobedience to the legal requirements of the administration of the institution and disorganizing their activities, refusing to fulfill their legal requirements, showing a negative example for the rest of the convicts, having negatively adjusted them to the administration of the institution, he deliberately allowed violations of the established order of serving the sentence, which were malicious in nature,” was said in the court’s verdict.

It should be noted that Kurbonov didn’t agree with the charges brought against him. He stated that the colony officers had planted the stationery knife blade on him, and they inflicted bodily harm on him when he was in solitary confinement cell.

However, the court found Kurbonov’s guilt fully proven and replaced his term by the verdict of the first court with 7 years in prison in a strict regime colony.

Soon Kurbonov was at AK-159/25 prison in Zhezkazgan. ACCA has written about this correctional institution more than once. For example, in December last year, three inmates from this prison went on a hunger strike to protest torture. They also sewed up their mouths and eyes. In January 2021, two more prisoners also went on hunger strike. In March, one of the convicts of this prison threatened to hang himself because he was tired of bullying and torture.

Human rights activists don’t see anything surprising in the fact that Kurbonov had a tough and protracted conflict with the administration of this institution. Three criminal cases were opened on his complaints against employees on charges of bullying and torture, but none of the perpetrators was ever punished.

As a result of this conflict, Kurbonov was taken to a hospital in the city of Semey. After his recovery, he was again to be returned to Zhezkazgan.

The escorting was carried out through the remand prison AK-159/1 in Karaganda.

There, in the isolation ward, according to the convict, a provocation took place again. One of the employees, operative Bakhtiyar Kurkbaev, gave Kurbonov a telephone so that he could call his sick mother. After the call, the detective demanded from him a payment for the telephone connection in the amount of $ 80. Kurbonov refused and again came under pressure. Finally, the citizen of Tajikistan was stabbed into the stomach. He was taken to the hospital, but the pin wasn’t removed, since the extraction is a “planned operation”, and planned operations are carried out by turn.

The Supreme Court of Kazakhstan, under the onslaught of Kurbonov’s relatives and his defenders, demanded a criminal case against him, as doubts arose about the fairness of his sentence.

Meanwhile, Kurbonov continued to be in the remand prison with a pin in his stomach. The wound began to fester. However, the prison doctors said there was no threat to life. During that time, his mother died.

The wife of Kurbonov and his lawyer got from the Tajik Embassy in Kazakhstan a promise to meet with Kurbonov in the pre-trial detention center. Since the employees of the Embassy are foreign citizens, it was required to agree with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan and the administration of the Committee of the Penitentiary System, which had to notify the administration of the pre-trial detention center about the visit of the Embassy staff.

However, the meeting didn’t take place, because on August 17, a few hours before the visit of the Embassy staff, Kurbonov was urgently transported back to Zhezkazgan by a special tour. He was convoyed with a pin in his stomach.

Kurbonov didn’t expect anything good from his return. Therefore, he managed to write and convey to his loved ones several suicide letters in case he was suddenly found dead.

Meanwhile, Kurbonov’s lawyer found out that the name of his client was never entered on the portal for the planned operation. As the prison administration explained, the operation was denied because Kurbonov is a citizen of another country and has no right to receive such medical assistance in Kazakhstan. In addition, the prison staff said that Kurbonov doesn’t have a personal identification number (all citizens of Kazakhstan and those, who have a residence permit, have PIN). Therefore, they couldn’t enter his data on the portal. However, according to the lawyer of Kurbonov, his client has a PIN, since he has been living in Kazakhstan for a long time.

In his dying letters, Kurbonov asks to blame for his death the head of the pre-trial detention center of Karaganda, the operative Bakhtiyar Kurkbaev, the head of the security section of the pre-trial detention center, as well as the administration and staff of AK-159/25 prison in Zhezkazgan.