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Committee to inspect Kyrgyz jails amid abuse reports

August 12, 2011

The total population of Kyrgyzstan's 10 prisons and six detention centers is estimated at nearly 15,000.

BISHKEK – A committee recently established by the Kyrgyz government to monitor the country's penitentiary system says it will inspect all of Kyrgyzstan's jails, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Cholpon Omurakunova, chairwoman of the Public Observers' Council of the State Committee to Control the Penitentiary System, told journalists in Bishkek on August 11 that the council would also investigate recent reports of rights abuses in penitentiaries.

She said the monitoring would start on August 15 and last until every penitentiary in the country had been checked. The council will then issue a report on its findings.

Earlier this week, domestic media reported that a woman was raped while visiting her relative in a labor camp in the southern Jalal-Abad region.

On August 9, Public Observers' Council spokesman Joldoshbek Busurmankulov told RFE/RL that reports about the alleged rape were untrue.

The total population of Kyrgyzstan's 10 prisons and six detention centers is estimated at nearly 15,000 people.

Several riots and protests have been reported in Kyrgyz penitentiaries in recent months. The most common complaint was that inmates' rights are being violated.

President Roza Otunbaeva signed an amnesty on July 20 that will result in the early release of some 3,500 prisoners, namely many of those who are handicapped, pregnant, old, young, or have paid their financial debts to the state.

Link to original story on RFE/RL website

Topics: Human rights monitors, Prison conditions,