Uzbek prisons 80% full - National Human Rights Center director
TASHKENT. Dec 9 (Interfax) - The number of people serving time in prisons is decreasing in Uzbekistan, Director of the Uzbek National Human Rights Center, Chairman of the Committee on Democratic Institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations and Public Authorities of the Oliy Majlis (the Lower Chamber of the Parliament) Legislative Chamber, Akmal Saidov, said.
"In the past ten years the prison population went down 2.5 times in our country. Today Uzbek jails are 80% full. The only colony for the underage is just 10% full," Saidov said.
"This means just one thing - Uzbekistan does not have an issue of prison overcrowding, while the issue remains pressing in many European countries," he said.
The decreasing prison population has become possible thanks to the liberalization of the criminal and procedural law and decriminalization of the criminal law, Saidov said.
"In particular, the cancellation of death sentences, introducing life sentences under just two articles of the Criminal Code, and introducing the institution of the habeas corpus," Saidov said.
Since January 1, 2008 courts started sanctioning arrests in Uzbekistan, which led to a significant drop in the number of individuals awaiting trial in detention centers, Saidov said.
"Thus, in the past three years judges ruled on detention as a pre-trial restriction on 14-16% of people, who committed crimes," Saidov said.
Since Uzbekistan's independence, amnesties were declared 23 times, Saidov said. As a result, over 147,000 people were released from detention facilities.
"The decrease in the prison population allowed for improving detention conditions of prisoners and bringing them to international standards," Saidov said.
