CAT/C/TKM/CO/2
Impunity for acts of torture and ill-treatment
7.
The Committee is seriously concerned about consistent allegations of widespread
torture and ill-treatment, including severe beatings, of persons deprived of their liberty,
especially at the moment of apprehension and during pretrial detention, mainly in order to
extract confessions. It is also gravely concerned about continued reports about impunity for
acts of torture since no cases of torture have been recorded or examined by the State party’s
courts during either the previous or the current reporting periods. The Committee regrets
the State party’s failure to provide information to the Committee indicating that it has
effectively investigated a number of widely publicized reports of torture alleged to have
taken place during the period under review (arts. 2, 4, 10-14 and 16).
8.
The Committee reiterates its recommendation that the State party should take
immediate and effective measures to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment
throughout the country, and that it should also take vigorous steps to eliminate
impunity for alleged perpetrators of such acts (see CAT/C/TKM/CO/1, para. 6). In
addition, the State party should:
(a)
Ensure that the President issues a public statement affirming
unambiguously that torture will not be tolerated;
(b)
Announce that investigations and prosecutions will be carried out
promptly against direct perpetrators of torture and those with command
responsibility in all cases and issue a warning that anyone who commits acts of torture
or is otherwise complicit in or acquiesces to torture will be held personally responsible
before the law and will be subject to criminal prosecution and appropriate penalties;
(c)
Ensure that all reports of torture and ill-treatment by public officials,
including the police and prison staff, are investigated promptly, effectively and
impartially by an independent mechanism with no institutional or hierarchical
connection to the investigators and the alleged perpetrators;
(d)
Ensure that impartial investigations are opened promptly into
allegations of torture mentioned during the review of the State party, including: the
alleged beating of five prisoners at the Seydi labour camp, in February 2015; the
alleged torture in detention of Bahram Hemdemov, a Jehovah’s Witness, in May 2015;
the arrest, severe beating and involuntary detention in a drug rehabilitation centre of
Mansur Masharipov, a Jehovah’s Witness, in July 2014; and the alleged torture of 19
individuals suspected of connections with the Islamic civic movement Hizmet at the
pretrial detention facility in Anau, in September 2016;
(e)
Ensure that all persons under investigation for having committed acts of
torture or ill-treatment are immediately suspended from their duties and remain so
throughout the investigation;
(f)
Bring the perpetrators of acts of torture and ill-treatment to justice and,
when they are convicted, impose appropriate sentences, and provide proper
compensation to victims of torture;
(g)
Ensure that defendants and their lawyers are able to obtain video and
audio recordings of interrogations at no cost to the defendant and that such
recordings may be used as evidence in court.
Incommunicado detention and enforced disappearances
9.
The Committee remains concerned at continued reports that an estimated 90 persons
are being held by the State party in long-term incommunicado detention, a practice that
amounts to enforced disappearance and violates the Convention. It is particularly concerned
3