Kyrgyzstan: pardoned convict cannot be released

A convicted Kyrgyzstani with disabilities, pardoned by the president, has been “overstaying” for more than two months due to the judge’s negligence, lawyer Indira Sautova told ACCA.

“Arthur Becker was arrested and convicted in 2017. And in 2018 he was arrested again (already in the colony) for hooliganism committed in 2015. The guy went through all the legal procedures again and was convicted of this crime. By adding up the sentences, he received a term of 13 years in prison, ”explained Sautova.

Becker was pardoned by a presidential decree in August 2021.

“He was pardoned because he had already served a third of his term – since 2017 when he was detained and received the first sentence. But the State Penitentiary Service considered that it was impossible to count from this date since in 2018 there was another arrest and a new detention protocol, ”the lawyer says.

According to her, in the sentence of 2018, the judge who delivered the verdict indicated the correct start date for calculating the term of serving the sentence – from the date of arrest in 2017.

“This is required by the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, according to which, if a person is detained and convicted while already in prison for some crime committed before the first sentence was passed, then the punishment is counted from the date specified in it,” the human rights activist says.

Having indicated the correct date, the judge did not give reasons for his decision. As a result, when the pardon came, the State Penitentiary Service began to doubt where the starting point for Arthur Becker’s term was: whether it was necessary to count according to the text of the verdict, or should we be guided by the detention protocol of 2018.

Arthur Becker’s lawyers are challenging this legal conflict in court. A complaint was filed against the ruling of the Sverdlovsk District Court of the city of Bishkek to clarify the ambiguity of calculating the beginning of the sentence of convict Artur Becker dated 09/07/2021.

The process was going on in the Pervomaisky District Court. Having heard the parties at the first session, the panel of judges took a break for a week.

On October 13, a re-hearing was held on the appeal of Becker’s lawyers. This time, the collegium canceled the decision of Judge Satkynbayev (the judge of the Sverdlovsk court who made a mistake – author) and again returned it to the Sverdlovsk court for new consideration per Article 425 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

“There is a hope that we got through to the court and that eventually it will be officially recognized that the term for calculating the detention of Arthur Becker must be counted from the date of his arrest in 2017,” the lawyer says.

At the same time, she notes that if this can be achieved, then this will be the first such precedent in the law enforcement practice of the Kyrgyz Republic. However, it is possible that the judiciary and the State Penitentiary Service will not want to admit a mistake, since in this case, Becker has the right to count on compensation from the state for poor-quality administration of justice.

Recall that ACCA has already written about the fate of prisoner Arthur Becker, who could not get a passport while in the colony since he was put on the wanted list.

Arthur Becker was convicted of robbery five years ago, during which the owner of the house shot him in the kneecap. His limb was amputated, he was convicted and imprisoned.

Last year, an amnesty was announced in Kyrgyzstan, which was supposed to reduce the size of the prison population. According to the amnesty law, people with disabilities of I and II degrees received the opportunity to have freedom. However, Arthur Becker, despite the absence of a leg, was not able to be free under the amnesty, since for the state he remains a healthy person with all the limbs available and functioning.