Kyrgyzstan: corruption in law enforcement bodies intensified without civilian control
Two information appeared on social networks at once, which did the law enforcement officers no credit. One of the employees of the law enforcement bodies was caught selling passes for free movement around the city during the quarantine period, the second one transported sex workers.
True, the latest information was then officially denied by law enforcement agencies. However, the society did not believe their refutation. A too detailed description of the police officer was given by one of the media in Kyrgyzstan. It was reported that the detainee is an operative of the criminal police department of Sverdlovskiy district.
“When stopping at quarantine posts, he showed his official ID card and drove through roadblocks,” the media wrote.
It was even reported that an investigation was launched on this fact, but later the authorities disowned and said that it was a fake. But the fact of the sale of passes for free movement around the city during quarantine by an employee of the authorities was confirmed.
“On April 1, during an operational-search action in the act of receiving a bribe, an employee of the Department of Internal Affairs of Oktyabrsky district of Bishkek was detained. It was established that he extorted money from a representative of a private company for a positive solution to the issue of passes through sanitary and roadblocks,” the State Committee for National Security said.
On this fact, the materials of pre-trial proceedings are registered in the Unified Register according to the article 326 of part 1 “Extortion of a bribe” of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. The detainee was placed in the temporary detention center under the State Committee for National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic.
“I am not surprised at this fact, because before the coronavirus, law enforcement agencies were susceptible to corruption. Studies of leading expert groups have been prepared on this topic. And what is happening today confirms once again that, without control by the media and society, a mess begins in the country,” the human rights activist, Tolekan Ismailova, said to ACCA.
According to her, the big mistake of the authorities was to limit journalists to access information. The republican headquarters should provide accreditation to the media as soon as possible for objective and comprehensive coverage of what is happening in the country.
“At the time of the crisis, journalists should be at the forefront so that people have confidence in the headquarters and the authorities. Today, it is not so. We see corruption and illiteracy. All this can lead to disastrous consequences for Kyrgyzstan,” the human rights activist emphasized.
