Kyrgyzstan: mother of two children spent 1.4 years in custody on false charges
The Institute of the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic helped a Kyrgyz woman, who was in custody for a year and four months, to prove her innocence. She was subjected to groundless criminal prosecution by an investigator of the Investigative Service of the Lenin District Department of Internal Affairs.
On May 20, 2021, defendant A.A.O. turned to the Ombudsman’s Office from the pre-trial detention center №1 with a request to assist in her acquittal.
The woman claimed that she was innocent and could prove it. At the time of the commission of the crime incriminated to her, she was in another place, which witnesses can confirm. A.A.O. also said that the case file contains a protocol of confrontation, which is not true.
The Kyrgyzstani asked to deal with obvious violations of the investigation procedure and the fact that her alibi wasn’t taken into account by the court. In her letter, she noted that during the investigation she had the impression that the investigator wanted to end the case as soon as possible by pinning charges on her.
The Ombudsman Institute took this appeal into consideration. Employees of the profile department of the apparatus visited the pre-trial detention center №1 in Bishkek, where they provided A.A.O. with the necessary legal advice, and found out that the lawyer, provided to her at the time of her arrest, was an acquaintance of the investigator and not a public lawyer.
“When studying the materials of the criminal case, gross violations of Article 45 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Kyrgyz Republic were found, committed by the investigator of the Lenin District Court of Bishkek during interrogation and confrontation. The court didn’t provide the detainee with the state legal assistance guaranteed to her in the absence of her lawyer. And also they didn’t give A.A.O. the opportunity to make one effective free and controlled telephone conversation,” the Ombudsman’s Office notes.
As it turned out, the relatives of the detainee found out about her detention in pre-trial detention center №1 of the State Penitentiary Service only 27 days after her detention.
The Ombudsman’s Office sent a letter addressed to the Director of the Center for the Coordination of State Guaranteed Legal Aid under the Ministry of Justice. It contained an inquiry as to whether the lawyer (provided to the detainee A.A.O.) provided legal services through the state guaranteed legal aid. And a negative response was received.
“Evidence was obtained that the lawyer of the accused woman was an acquaintance of the investigator in charge of the case and could be an interested person. And the witness, who allegedly pointed out the guilt of A.A.O., didn’t appear at the court hearings at all, which was why the trial was dragged out,” the human rights activists say.
In addition, the staff of the Ombudsman’s Office sent a letter to the Lenin District Court. It said that A.A.O. has two minor children (born in 2010 and 2011), one of them is a person with disabilities. They also indicated all the violations identified during the investigation.
As a result, on November 1, 2021, the Lenin District Court nevertheless delivered an acquittal regarding A.A.O. And on December 24, 2021, the Collegium for Criminal Cases of the City Court of Bishkek upheld it.
“Due to the illegal actions of the investigator of the Investigative Service of the Lenin District Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Bishkek, citizen A.A.O. was forced to stay in custody for a year and four months. Now the woman can file a complaint against the actions of the investigator and the administration and recover material and moral damages for the violations and unlawful criminal prosecution,” the Ombudsman Institute notes.
