Kyrgyzstan: Ombudsman demands to punish employees of pre-trial detention center for trying to hide torture

The Ombudsman demands to punish the head and employees of the pre-trial detention center №50 for obstructing the photography of bodily injuries of the prisoner Emilbek Kimsanov.

 The appeal noted that the Ombudsman addresses to the leadership of the State Penitentiary Service, as well as to the Prosecutor’s office for supervision of compliance with laws in the agencies and institutions of the penal system with a request to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the administration and employees of the pre-trial detention center №50.

“They prevented a group of experts from the National Center for the Prevention of Torture in Kyrgyzstan from photographing their meeting with convict Emilbek Kimsanov and his bodily injuries,” the Ombudsman’s Institute informed.

They consider this fact as a gross violation of the norms of the Criminal Executive Code of the republic.

Recall that, according to the article 43 of the Criminal Executive Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, “the members of the Coordination Council and employees of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture have the right to visit the institutions, that execute punishments and enforcement measures of criminal law related to isolation from society, without a special permission, to exercise their powers stipulated by law of the Kyrgyz Republic”.

“This article also stipulates that the members of the Coordination Council and employees of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture have the right to bring camera, photo and video equipment to correctional institutions and use it without special permission from the administration of the institutions of the State Penitentiary Service,” the Institute emphasized.