Kyrgyzstan: Case of torture of a guy by policemen will be reopened
The case of torture against a resident of Osh has been going on for more than a year. It all started in February 2021, when police officers found 15 grams of marijuana; the young man and his friend had it. The guys were brought to the police station and demanded that one of them confess that he allegedly gave drugs to another. The guy refused to slander himself, as he wasn’t engaged in sales. Then the police officers began to beat him.
The young man said that he was beaten in the stomach, on the head, kicked, and one of the five employees choked him. According to him, the beating continued throughout the night. At night, the detainee was supposed to be in the cell of the isolation ward, but the police officers, taking advantage of free access, took him out and beat him.
“After the beating, I was told to tell the doctor during the examination that supposedly everything was fine with my health. The next morning, they again demanded to take the blame on himself and beat me again. There was no lawyer present during the interrogation. They beat me like that for three days,” the victim recalls.
As a result, he was charged under article 267 of part 2 “Illegal manufacture of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their analogues for the purpose of sale” of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. He denied selling. He received a term of 7 years in the court of first instance. In the court of second instance, serving time in a colony was replaced by probationary supervision.
The young man didn’t know how to protect himself from torture. The lawyer, who defended him at that time, didn’t tell him. Only two months later, when he changed his lawyer for the main charge, he was explained where to contact for protection from torture. Thus began a long process to bring those involved in torture.
At the request of the lawyer, the investigator of the Department of the State Committee for National Security for the city of Osh and Osh region issued the decision concerning the procedure of a forensic psychological and psychiatric examination, conducted in May-June by three experts at the Regional Mental Health Center of Osh.
The experts noted that the victim doesn’t have a tendency to lie. There is alertness, constraint in actions, temporary restriction in joy, internal tension. The actions, described by him in relation to him by the police, didn’t lead to the development of a mental disorder. There are no mental disorders that could result from torture. Determination of the degree of suffering is not within the competence of this particular examination. The testee is mentally healthy, doesn’t need rehabilitation and treatment. The testee’s allegations of violence were not substantiated.
Based on this conclusion, in November 2021, the investigator issued the decision to terminate the pre-trial proceedings in the case. The lawyer appealed to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office to cancel this decision, and it was canceled this year. The Regional Prosecutor’s Office sent the case for additional investigation to the Office of the State Committee for National Security.
