Torture of a woman in police custody, including rape threat

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received information and requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Kyrgyzstan.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has received information from the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights (KCHR), a member of the SOS-Torture Network, regarding the case of Ms. A. Muratova, arrested and tortured to confess to being guilty of murder in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

According to the information received, Ms. Muratova was arrested on 6 January 2008 by members of the police, and detained in the building of the Regional Department of Internal Affairs (RDIA) in Sverdlovsky district, Bishkek, where she was allegedly tortured by several policemen. She was severely beaten on the head and breasts, smothered with a polyethylene bag on her head, undressed, threatened with rape and with inserting a plastic bottle into her vagina unless she pleaded guilty of murder. No further details have been provided as to the exact circumstances of the murder she is being accused of.

On 8 January 2008 the Sverdlovsky district court decided to keep Ms. Muratova in preventive (pre-trial) detention during the investigation. Until that date Ms. Muratova had been deprived of contact with her family and of access to legal counselling or medical care.

A complaint has been filed by the NGO “Kylym Shamy” to the Public Prosecutor Sverdlovsky area, but according to the information received no investigation has been ordered into the torture allegations.

OMCT is concerned by the severe violence inflicted on Ms. Muratova, which clearly amounts to the State’s failure protect its citizens against torture. OMCT is also concerned that no steps have been taken to investigate and punish the alleged perpetrators.

OMCT recalls that the UN Convention against Torture, to which Kyrgyzstan is a party, states in its Article 11 that “Each State Party shall keep under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment in any territory under its jurisdiction, with a view to preventing any cases of torture”. Further, Article 12 also requires that the State “ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction”.

OMCT also recalls that the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women states in its article 4(c) that States should "exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons."

Action requested:

Please write to the authorities in Kyrgyzstan urging them to:

1. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Ms. Muratova;
2. Ensure her immediate release in the absence of valid legal charges, and if such charges exist, ensure that she is given a prompt and fair trial, in which her procedural rights are guaranteed at all times;
3. Ensure a thorough and impartial investigation into these allegations of torture in order to bring the responsible to trial and apply the penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
4. Guarantee that adequate rehabilitation and compensation is awarded to the victim;
5. Guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards.

Addresses:

• Mr. Bakiev Kurmanbek Salievich, President of Kyrgyz Republic, Kyrgyzskaya Respublika, 720003. Bishkek, Prospekt Chuy, 205, Fax: 996312218627, ghpress2@rhl.bishkek.su
• Mr. Igor Vasilevitch Tchudinov, Prime Minister, Fax: 996312218627
• Mr. Moldomusa Kongantiev, Minister of Internal Affairs, Fax: 996312663031, 996312288788
• Mr. Marat Kaipov, Minister of Justice, Fax: 996312663044 / 996312656502
• Mr. Elmurza Satybaldiev, Public Prosecutor of the Kyrgyz of Republic, Fax: 996312665411
• Permanent mission of Kyrgyzstan, Rue Maunoir 26, 1207 Geneva, Switzerland, Email: kyrgyzmission@bluewin.ch, Fax: +41 22 707.92.21

Please also write to the embassies of Kyrgyzstan in your respective country.

*******

Geneva, 24 January 2008.

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.