Department for Correctional Works comments on inmate’s death

The Department for Correctional Works at the Ministry of Justice has commented on the death of the 27-year-old inmate Hamza Ikromzoda.

Bahrom Abdulhaqov, the deputy head of the Department for Correctional Works, says Ikromzoda had been held in the penalty isolation ward of penal colony YaS No 3/1.

Earlier some media sources reported that Ikromzoda had been held in the central detention center of the Ministry of Justice.

According to him, Hamza Ikromzoda was put into the penalty isolation ward for violating the penal colony regime.

“Ikromzoda was held in the penalty isolation ward together with another inmate but the last asked to transfer him to another cell because of aggressive behavior of Ikromzoda,” said Abdulhaqov.  “The incident took place on September 20, at around 5:20 pm.  When prison guard went to his cell he found Ikromzoda hanging by his shirt.  The prison guard gave the alarm and officers from the department for correctional works, prosecutors and medical workers came to the cell.  When they took him from the hook his pulse still could be felt.”

Medical workers did everything they could to save him.  “His pulse was missing and medical workers tried to resuscitate him and gave him a DC shock (electrical stimulation of the heart).  Three shocks of 100, 150, and 20 joules were applied, and therefore, there are signs of electrical injuries on his chest,” Abdulhaqov noted.

He added that prosecutors had launched investigation into the incident.  Abdulhaqov promised to make detailed information available as soon as the results of the inspection are become known.

Hamza Ikromzoda was sentenced to eleven years in prison for theft in 2011.  Later, his jail term was reduced by thee years under amnesty law.

We will recall that relatives of Hamza Ikromzoda claim that Hamza was tortured.

Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports Ikromzoda's body was handed to his relatives on September 21.  The relatives say the body carries traces of torture, including burns caused by a heated iron.

The detention center's officials did not explain the cause of Ikromzoda's death, while representatives of Interior Ministry's Penitentiary Control Board said “nobody tortures anyone in Tajik jails,” RFE/RL reported

The issue of torture in Tajik penitentiaries has been raised by local rights activists for some time.

In December, dozens of inmates in a labor camp in southern city of Qurghon Teppa staged a hunger strike protesting alleged torture and beating.

The deaths of two apparently tortured inmates in the Dushanbe detention center caused a public outcry in 2011.

The Department of Correctional Works is responsible for managing the prison system in Tajikistan and has been part of the Ministry of Justice since 2002.  Its 19 penitentiary institutions include 13 correctional colonies (including one colony for women and one colony for juveniles), one prison and five pre-trial detention centers.  There are also five regional units responsible for the execution of non-custodial sanctions.