Real-life example – Golos Svobody: On 30 May 2012, officers of the village police station of Novopavlovsk arrested Mr. P.S., born in 1974, on suspicion of stealing chickens and took him to the police station. The suspect confessed his crime fully. However, when taken to the police station, P.S. was subjected to torture for purposes of obtaining confessionary statements with regard to another similar offence that was committed. He refused to admit his guilt with respect to the second crime. On 7 June 2012, when the monitoring group was visiting the TDF in the Sokuluk region, P.S. told them about torture. A complaint was submitted to the prosecutor’s office of Sokuluk region which refused to initiate criminal proceedings on the same day. The Sokuluk district court, having considered a complaint from the man’s defence lawyer, recognized the resolution on refusing to initiate criminal proceedings as illegal, overturned the resolution and sent the case files to the prosecution agency for further inspection and adoption of a legal decision. Real-life example – Luch Solomona: In the course of the monitoring visit to PDF No. 25 in Osh, Mr. R.U. who was charged with committing a crime as per Article 167 of the CC KR reported that torture was used against him by officers of the Osh TDF. The prosecutor’s office in Osh refused to initiate criminal proceedings. Criminal proceedings were initiated by prosecution agencies with respect to 19 complaints (13.2%) about cases of torture submitted by nongovernmental organizations, of which:  12 complaints from Kylym Shamy;  2 complaints from Spravedlivost;  1 complaint from Luch Solomona;  3 complaints from Golos Svobody;  1 complaint from Youth Human Rights Group. Real-life example – Kylym Shamy: On 30 April 2012, Ms. U.K., born in 1981, was arrested by police officers on suspicion of abducting a small child. During and after the arrest, U.K. was beaten up by operative officers of the Sverdlovskiy DDI in Bishkek who forced her to confess the crime. In one of the rooms of the operative officers in the DDI, U.K. was beaten for several hours in a row (from 8 a.m. till 5:30 p.m.); they put a plastic bag on her head and handcuffed her to the chair for a long time. On 5 June 2012, the woman’s defence lawyer submitted a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office asking to take action against the police officers. Following the inspection that was carried out, a criminal case was launched and on 25 September 2012 charges were brought against officers I.Ch., O.E. and A.M. as per Article 305-1, Section 2, para. 2 (Torture) of the CC KR. Investigative activities are currently underway. Real-life example – Kylym Shamy: Mr. I.S., born in 1979, was subjected to torture in the Interior Department of the Bakai-Ata region. Police officers put a gas mask on his head, and one of the officers sat on his lap so that he could not stand up, while others beat him with their hands and feet. I.S. fainted several times, and the police offices helped him come to his senses, then began beating him again, forcing him to confess to stealing of six sacks of French beans and an electric drill. I.S. was released only after his father, as instructed by these police officers, paid 5,000 KGS worth of a bribe. The Talas prosecutor’s office initiated criminal proceedings on the basis of the above as per Article 304 (Abuse of power) and Article 305-1 (Torture) of the CC KR. At the present time, the criminal case is under investigation. Real-life example – Kylym Shamy: Ms. T.A., born in 1995, was subjected to torture for purposes of obtaining confessionary statements with respect to murder. Police officers beat her on the face and inflicted blows on various parts of her body. The prosecutor’s office of the Sverdlovsk District in Bishkek initiated criminal proceedings as per Article 305-1, Section 2, para. 2 and Section 3, para. 1 (Torture) of the CC KR. The investigation is currently underway. 75