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Over 20 arrested on dry hunger strike in Bishkek's pretrial detention center 1

More than 20 arrested people are on a dry hunger strike in Bishkek’s pretrial detention center 1. The Ombudsman’s Institute reported.

Employees of the Human Rights Commissioner’s Institute visited the pretrial detention center for the third time since December 21. According to the Institute, more than 20 arrested people have been on a dry hunger strike since December 20.

Thus, those under arrest are expressing their protest and demanding to stop use of force and to allow them to meet with their lawyers without hindrance.

Two of the arrested people wrote statements addressed to the akyikatchi and confirmed the fact of beatings by officers of the Penitentiary service. According to them, they were beaten with a baton and kicked. Visible signs of violence were found on their bodies — hematomas and swelling, human rights activists reported.

«The victims are representatives of the so-called criminal world. According to them, they were not provided with medical assistance,» the statement says.

The Ombudsman’s Institute reported that since December 21, the administration of the pretrial detention center No. 1 has changed the schedule of visits of lawyers of the accused and convicted, according to which Saturday and Sunday are non-working days.

Ombudsman reminds that, according to Article 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, the accused has the right to freely communicate with a lawyer in private and without limitation on the number and duration of time.

The human rights institute sent a letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office and called to check the legality of the decision of the administration of the pretrial detention center No. 1 in Bishkek to change the schedule for visiting prisoners. Materials on the use of physical force by Penitentiary Service officers were also sent to the supervisory authority.

Recall, 24.kg news agency learned that on the night of December 22, inmates of prisons and pretrial detention centers announced the start of a hunger strike in protest against the new head of the Penitentiary Service.

The press service of the Penitentiary Service stated that «all institutions of the Penitentiary Service were operating as usual.»

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