Demand medical care for disabled prisoner: Zhasulan Suleimenov

A wheelchair bound prisoner, Zhasulan Suleimenov, has been kept in solitary confinement in Kazakhstan for more than 11 months. He has been denied direct access to drinking water, basic hygiene and necessary medical care. His health is deteriorating and he urgently needs to be moved to a hospital outside the prison system for independent examination and essential medical treatment.

 

Zhasulan Suleimenov, a 36-year old disabled man, is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Kazakhstan. He is in urgent need of a proper, thorough and independent medical examination and appropriate treatment. He was recently diagnosed with osteomyelitis, an inflammation of the bone and bone marrow caused by infection. His relatives have said that an old fracture to one of his legs became infected in prison because of lack of proper medical care. His other leg had been damaged as a result of beatings in detention. He is also denied direct access to regular drinking water, a basic requirement for all prisoners under international law.

 

Medicines provided by Zhasulan Suleimenov’s relatives were reportedly burned by prison guards upon his arrival at the prison in Atbasar in September 2011. During his four years in prison, Zhasulan Suleimenov has been subjected to three prison transfers and has been forced to spend more than 11 months in solitary confinement. Zhasulan Suleimenov was beaten during all these transfers, including on his paralysed legs.

 

Zhasulan Suleimenov and his 25-year-old cousin Kuat Zhobolaev, were convicted in November 2009 on charges of terrorism and sentenced to eight years in prison after what independent observers called a “blatantly unfair trial”. Both men alleged in court that they had been tortured by National Security Service officers in order to force them to confess. Kuat Zhobolaev is reported to suffer from neurological problems and myopia, which has aggravated since his detention, and he is loosing his eyesight. Relatives believe this might be as a result of beatings to his face while in detention. There have been allegations that when international concerns are raised on behalf of Zhasulan Suleimenov, Kuat Zhobolaev faces retaliatory ill-treatment and harassment in prison.

 

Please write immediately in Kazakh, Russian or your own language:

 

Urging Kazakhstani authorities to provide Zhasulan Suleimenov with an independent and impartial medical examination and to ensure that he receives any medical attention he may require, including hospital treatment outside the prison system;

 

Calling on them to ensure that Zhasulan Suleimenov is not placed in solitary confinement in the future;

 

Urging the Kazakhstani authorities to ensure protection of Zhasulan Suleimenov and Kuat Zhobolaev against any reprisals from prison officers.

 

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 30 JANUARY 2013 TO:

 

Prosecutor General

Daulbaev Ashat

House of Ministries Entrance No.2

8 Orinbor St.

Astana 010000, Kazakhstan

Fax: +7 7172 50 25 34 (say “fax”)

Email: Gp-rk@prokuror.kz

Salutation: Dear Prosecutor General

 

Minister of Internal Affairs

Kalmuhanbet Kasymov

Tauelsizdik prospekt 1

Astana 010000

Kazakhstan

Salutation: Dear Minister

 

And copies to:

 

National Ombudsman

Askar Shakirov

House of Ministries Entrance No 15

8 Orynbor St.

Astana 010000, Kazakhstan

Fax: +7 7172 74 05 48

 

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

 

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

 

Additional Information

 

Zhasulan Suleimenov was detained together with five acquaintances in Russia in January 2009 by officers of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, reportedly at the request of the Kazakhstani National Security Service (NSS). He had been on his way to Russia to receive medical treatment. In February 2009 the six were extradited from Russia to Kazakhstan. Zhasulan Suleimenov was kept in incommunicado detention for three days before being transferred to the NSS SIZO (pre-trial detention centre) in Astana. While in the SIZO he was reportedly beaten on his legs and other parts of his body, handcuffed and suffocated, denied food and water and basic hygienic care. NSS officers reportedly threatened to harm his mother and his younger cousin. His relatives claimed that he was not given the specialized medical care a paraplegic like him needs.

 

Kuat Zhobolaev’s family reported that he was kept in de facto incommunicado detention for two months, during which time he, too, was said to be tortured and ill-treated. The families of both men lodged numerous complaints to the prosecutor’s office about their allegations of incommunicado detention, torture, denial of medical care by the NSS as well as lack of access to families and independent legal advice, all of which were turned down as lacking in fact.

 

During his first transfer, from a prison in Pavlodar to a prison in Atbasar in September 2011, Zhasulan Suleimenov alleged that he was dropped intentionally from his wheel chair by prison guards who told him they wished he would die.

 

During the second transfer, from Atbasar to a prison in Petropavlovsk, Zhasulan Suleimenov alleged that he and other fellow inmates were beaten by prison guards in charge of their transfer. This transfer, according to relatives of the two cousins, coincided with the transfer of responsibilities for the prison administration from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

 

Name: Zhasulan Suleimenov and Kuat Zhobolaev

 

www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR57/006/2012/en/2ca73697-6e52-4933-b459-8071e7865a4b/eur570062012en.html