CCPR/C/117/D/2219/2012 Independent Lawyers Association of February 2010.8 Those documents indicate that the practice of torture and ill-treatment of detainees in the State party is widespread. They also highlight the serious risk of being subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment upon removal to Turkmenistan, and the fact that the LBK-12 prison is located in a desert where extreme temperatures are reached. The prison is overcrowded and prisoners with contagious diseases are kept together with healthy inmates, putting the author at a high risk of infection. The author therefore requests that the Committee require the State party to release him from prison immediately. Although the author does not invoke it specifically, the communication also raises issues under article 10 of the Covenant. 3.3 In the present case, the author has twice been prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for his refusal to perform military service, based on the same constant resolve grounded in reasons of conscience, in violation of article 14 (7) of the Covenant. 9 3.4 The author claims that his prosecution, conviction and imprisonment for refusing to perform compulsory military service owing to his religious beliefs and conscientious objection have violated his rights under article 18 (1) of the Covenant.10 He notes that he repeatedly informed the Turkmen authorities that he was willing to fulfil his civil duty by performing genuine alternative service, but that the State party’s legislation does not provide for such an alternative. 3.5 The author requests that the Committee conclude that his repeated prosecution, conviction and imprisonment violate articles 7, 14 (7) and 18 (1) of the Covenant. He also requests that the Committee direct the State party to: (a) acquit him of the charges under article 219 (1) of the Criminal Code and expunge his criminal record; (b) provide him with appropriate compensation for the non-pecuniary damages suffered as a result of his conviction and imprisonment; and (c) provide him with appropriate monetary compensation for his legal expenses, in accordance with article 2 (3) of the Covenant. 8 9 10 against criminal suspects by the Turkmen law enforcement authorities, and very poor conditions of detention. The report of Turkmenistan Independent Lawyers Association of February 2010 (pp. 9-10) described the LBK-12 prison, popularly referred to as Shagal, as the largest in Turkmenistan in size and prison population, designed to accommodate up to 2,100 inmates. At the time of the report, it housed 5,700 detainees. Despite the minimum security conditions for first offenders, prison conditions were very tough. The colony was located in the lifeless desert where in winter, temperatures reached minus 20°C and in the summer, 50°C. Due to the harsh climatic conditions, overcrowding, the fact that prisoners diagnosed with tuberculosis and skin diseases were kept together with healthy inmates, scarce supplies of food, medication and personal hygiene products, the institution reported a mortality rate of 5.2 per cent, the highest among the country’s penitentiary facilities. Similar to other penitentiary facilities in Turkmenistan, physical abuse was used against inmates by the colony personnel and other individuals with the consent and often following the instructions of the colony’s administration. Primarily, detainees who were placed in the colony for the first time and were consequently not aware of the unofficial prison rules, were subjected to violence. Similar observations on prison conditions in Turkmenistan were made in the United States of America State Department 2011 country report and the Amnesty International report of February 2012. See the Committee’s general comment No. 32 (2007) on the right to equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial, which indicates that repeated punishment of conscientious objectors for not having obeyed a renewed order to serve in the military may amount to punishment for the same crime if such subsequent refusal is based on the same constant resolve grounded in reasons of conscience (para. 55). In the report on her mission to Turkmenistan in 2008, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief recalled the principle of ne bis in idem and recommended that Turkmenistan revise the Military Service and Military Duty Act, which referred to the possibility of being sanctioned twice for the same offence (A/HRC/10/8/Add.4, para. 68). See, for example, communications Nos. 1853/2008 and 1854/2008, Atasoy and Sarkut v. Turkey, Views adopted on 29 March 2012, paras. 10.4 and 10.5. 5