Kazakh citizens increasingly report torture - NGO
ASTANA. June 26 (Interfax) - The number of reports of torture and cruel treatment from law enforcement has increased in Kazakhstan over the past few years, Nazgul Yergaliyeva, director of the Center for Legal Policy Studies, said.
"In 2001, the coalition of Kazakhstan's NGOs against torture registered 411 complaints from citizens reporting cruel treatment. In the first five months of 2012, 115 such reports were registered," Yergaliyeva told a roundtable meeting on torture in Astana on Tuesday.
Kazakh citizens filed 137 reports of torture in 2006 and 178 in 2007.
"The increased number of reports from victims of torture does not necessarily indicate that the use of torture is increasing. The reason why there were so few reports of torture in the past is that people were afraid, they didn't know how to protect themselves," Yergaliyeva said.
According to Yergaliyeva, most complaintants accuse law enforcement officials of torturing them to get them to admit committing crimes.
At the same time, a considerable number of complaints come from corrective establishments, where torture and cruel treatment are used to coerce people to take certain actions (perform unpaid labor, cooperate with the administration of the establishment to spy on other inmates), Yergaliyeva said.
According to Yergaliyeva's information, the number of criminal cases opened on the basis of reports of torture is still very low, but public bodies are now reacting to such complaints more promptly.
"In 2009, only three criminal cases on the basis of the article dealing with torture were opened. In 2010, 13 such criminal cases were opened. In the first six months of 2011, five such criminal cases were opened. In my view, such low number of cases indicates insufficient prosecution for torture and large-scale impunity in this area," she said.
"To achieve significant progress in this area, we need a state program to fight torture," she said.
