Prisoner in Kazakhstan sewn up his mouth in protest
Kazakh citizen Ruslan Bobrov, sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling drugs, made a protest action and sewn up his mouth.
Bobrov is serving his sentence in an emergency security institution (strict regime colony) EЦ-166/5 in the village of Arshaly in Akmola region. He had already served half of his sentence, but still had not admitted his guilt and had repeatedly appealed to the Prosecutor general with complaints about the verdict.
“My appeals are not being brazenly and illegally considered,” Bobrov said in a video message recorded shortly before the protest action. “They just write that everything is legal. But if you start to sort it out, you will see that there is no legality. I ask the relevant structures to pay attention and visit me in this institution with appropriate proceedings on the facts of abuse of authority, the use of torture of a psychological and moral nature.”
Meanwhile, as reported by the Kazakh TV channel “Astana”, the colony administration does not deny the fact that Bobrov sewn up his mouth and has not been eating for four days. The institution noted that the prisoner is under the supervision of doctors. And if the state of his health begins to deteriorate, they will force-feed him.
According to the Head of the colony, Kanat Ashov, Bobrov took occasion of the fact that there are no video cameras in the toilets and sewn up his mouth there.
In turn, the Head of the Department of the Criminal Executive System Committee of Kazakhstan, Kairat Murzashev, said that there were no complaints from Bobrov and no evidence of torture was recorded.
The colony EЦ-166/5, created in 1957, is popularly called “Vishnya” [“Cherry”], because earlier the village of Arshaly, located 60 kilometers from the capital of Kazakhstan, was called Vishnevka. The “Vishnya” contains especially dangerous criminals and recidivists.
It should be noted that it’s not the first time when EЦ-166/5 gets into the news bulletin. So, in June 2014, four prisoners in this colony disemboweled themselves, and another convict swallowed nails. This was reported by relatives of the prisoners. According to them, the prisoners took such a desperate step because of ill-treatment and torture. However, the administration of the penitentiary system denied this information, saying that only two prisoners inflicted light, non-life-threatening bodily injuries, and that they did so in protest against the rules of detention.
In March 2018, EЦ-166/5 prisoner Ruslan Shakhgireev, sentenced to 12 years in prison, stabbed his stomach with a needle in protest against the beating he suffered during a search in the cell.
