…female prison #64/7, located in the Zangiata…

Ezgulik: The number of raped women is growing in Uzbek jails

Ezgulik human rights organization reports the growing number of prisoner women in Uzbekistan that were raped during the investigation.

According to Ezgulik, the female prison #64/7, located in the Zangiat district of the Tashkent Oblast and subordinate to main directorate of administering punishment under Uzbek Interior Ministry, consists of 7 sectors and it is the special colony (the only female colony in Uzbekistan – editorial note). The colony commandant is Colonel Zulgia Mirsaidova. The prison contains over 3500 women.

Among them, there are special women, placed to VIP cells with modern facilities. There are prisoners of conscience. Third sector is the special one, designated for prisoners with little kids as well as older and sick women. The number of pregnant women and prisoners with little kids is growing in this sector. Women that got pregnant after raping during the pretrial investigation also arrive in this sector.

Kholiskhon (the last name is not indicate – Ezgulik’s note) was born in the Khoresm Oblast in 1992. In 2009 she was sentenced to long term by the Khoresm Oblast criminal court under article 273 (Illegal storage of narcotic and psychotropic substances) of Uzbek Criminal Court. During the pretrial investigation this woman got pregnant and gave a birth to a son in colony. Her son Sherkhon is making his first steps. The woman does not even know people who raped her.

Dilfuza Normatova (born in 1991) was accused of murder and sentenced by the Surkhandaria Oblast criminal court. The pretrial investigation took 16 months. Being already pregnant, Dilfuza got into Zangiat jail. Her son is 6 months old now.

Nasiba Zhumaniezova (born in 1980), sentenced by the Khoresm Oblast court for drug addiction charges, got pregnant while staying in the Zangiat female prison. Several turnkeys were fired and the prison administration transferred Nasiba to the third sector.

Ezgulik human rights organization in Uzbekistan criticizes the above-mentioned circumstances in system of running the pretrial investigation by law enforcement bodies and urges the committees on legal affairs from each chamber of the parliament to run special investigation of this matter. The organization draws attention of International Red Cross Committee, Ombudsman of Oliy Mazhlis (parliament) of Uzbekistan, officials of National human rights center to these cases.

Several times Ferghana raised this issue in concern with the same story, reporting the raping of Soatovs sisters during pretrial investigation. Uzbek authorities denied the facts of raping of the sisters based on the fact that they could not find the participants of multiple rapes.

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