Since 29 April 2015 a breastfeeding mother of a
5-month old baby is detained in a pre-trial detention facility.
Nazgul Ahmatalieva born on 9 November
1988 is detained together with her 5 month old baby in the Osh city pre-trial
detention centre No.5 (СИЗО-5).
She is married and has two children.
We learnt that Nazgul Ahmatalieva is accused of
committing a fraud (Article 166 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic).
She has no previous convictions. After graduating from a high school,
Ahmatalieva was employed by the Swedish-Kyrgyz company «Oriflame-Kyrgyzstan».
At the insistence of the company management, she signed a statement that she
allegedly received 7,000 US dollars. By much persuasion, she was misled to
believe that the note she signed was only a formality, it did not impose any
liability on her. At that time, Ahmatalieva was pregnant and was about to leave
on a maternity leave. In reality, she never received the money or the goods in
that amount and never had any financially responsibility for the money in
question. As it turned out, two previously convicted women put down the note in
question for her. They fraudulently persuaded her to sign a document, but she
did not fully understand what she had signed.
On 14 April 2015, the law enforcement officials
summoned her for questioning the first time. On 15 April, the second
interrogation took place, the following night she felt extremely unwell and her
family had to call an ambulance. Doctors recorded that her health condition was
critical. It was a reaction to the way they treated her during the
investigation. She underwent a medical forensic examination. According to its
results, the defendant N. Ahmatalieva is in a state of psychosis resulting from
a nervous breakdown. Her speech is impaired, after her arrest, she lost her ability
to speak almost entirely. The charges came to her as a great shock.
On 29 April 2015, Nazgul Ahmataliev
was taken into custody. The Osh City Court handed down a decision to remand her
in custody for an initial period of 18 days, as a preventive measure. Despite
her health condition, Akmatalieva is in detention with her baby and continues
to breastfeed a child who is ill with measles. The doctors recommend not to
stop breastfeeding at this very time, because the child is very weak. To make
matters even worse, now the baby is kept in an environment where it is easy to
contract TB.
All this time, duty lawyers have been
representing her. According to preliminary information available to our
organisation, investigations of the criminal matter against Nazgul Ahmatalieva
are conducted in violation of the procedural rules and in conditions causing
serious damage to her health and the health of her baby.
Association for Human
Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) calls on the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic
to fulfill its obligations under international agreements in the field of human
rights. We ask to ensure compliance with national legislation and the
principles of legality and objectivity in the investigation of the criminal
case against a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, Nazgul Ahmatalieva.
Our report was also sent to:
— UN Special Rapporteur on Torture;
— Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of the EU;
— Special Rapporteur of the EU to Central Asia;
— Chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament;
— Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan;
— Prosecutor General of Kyrgyzstan.
