Public Frustrated with Unequal Treatment – Lawyer

Two scandals related to the Criminal-executive System (KUIS) have recently surfaced in Kazakhstan. One of them is a video appearing that shows employees of the colony in Atbasar assaulting an inmate with a baton for refusing to wash the bathroom. The other is a photo was posted on the Internet with the former General Serik Kudebayev sitting with other inmates at a nicely laid table. Kudebayev is serving his sentence in a colony in East Kazakhstan Region. 

Orda.kz has asked lawyer Sergey Utkin to share his opinion on the matter. 

I do not see any violation, as convicts are allowed to purchase kitchen stuff in a store on the correctional institution's territory or receive transfers (parcels). If this dastarkhan (Kazakh word referring to table at celebratory events - Ed.) was covered in his spare time without violating the daily routine, then, in my opinion, everything is within the law, Utkin believes.

Sergey Utkin. Photo: Sergey Utkin's Facebook

In Utkin's opinion, the matter is not the dastarkhan being within the walls of the KUIS institution, but rather the unequal treatment.

"The public is most likely frustrated by the unequal treatment of convicts by correctional institutions' administrations. Some get conditions for a comfortable and well-fed pastime, while others are harassed with cleaning toilets and punished with a rubber club, although any discrimination is prohibited under the Constitution. I don't think that a social activist punished with a club can also calmly eat kitchen stuff handed to him in a comfortable environment, while Kudebayev is on duty and personally washes the toilet and in case of refusal he will also be chastised,"  says Sergey Utkin.

Commenting on the photo, KUIS did not consider it a violation. However, from the point of view of the speaker of the Senate, Maulen Ashimbayev, the prison dastarkhan violates the law.

Original Author: Igor Ulitin

DISCLAIMER: This is a translated piece. The text has been modified, the content is the same. Please refer to the original article in Russian for accuracy.