Ten inmates, including one minor, died as a result of suicide in the pre-trial detention centers and correctional facilities of Kyrgyzstan from 2019 to 2021. Study conducted by the National Center for Prevention of Torture says.
«At the same time, in official data, the cause of death of three more people is «mechanical asphyxia» without indicating whether it was a consequence of a person’s voluntary departure from life or the result of violent strangulation — murder. The very fact of suicide in a closed institution is a violation of the right to life by the state. The consequences of such a violation should not only be the subject of a thorough investigation with prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators, but also the basis for payment of an adequate amount of compensation to the relatives of the deceased,» the study says.
It is also noted that the cause of death of two prisoners was drug poisoning — one case occurred in 2020 in institution No. 27, the second in 2021 — in institution No. 8. In 2021, the death of a prisoner in the pretrial detention center 1 from poisoning of unclear etiology was also recorded. The access of convicts to drugs raises a number of questions for human rights activists that require a thorough investigation.
The facts of death in correctional facilities as a result of various injuries received by prisoners are of serious concern.
According to human rights activists, six people died from a knife wound, a gunshot wound, an open craniocerebral injury, a brain contusion, a trauma to the femoral artery, and multiple fractures of the arms and legs in three years. In June 2022, the country’s public was shocked by the death of Chyngyz Dzhumagulov, who was brutally murdered in a cell of the pretrial detention center two weeks after his detention.
Recall, Chyngyz Dzhumagulov was killed on July 30 last year. According to the preliminary version, the cellmate inflicted numerous knife wounds on him and cut his throat. Earlier, he was detained by employees of the State Committee for National Security for organizing a criminal group and systematic extortion of money on an especially large scale from entrepreneurs. The criminal case on the fact of the murder was sent to court in January.
