In accordance with the Law on the Procedure of Detention, suspected and accused persons shall have the right to worship in places of detention of suspected or accused persons, to have classical religious literature, religious items, to invite a priest for the observance via the administration of a place of detention of suspected or accused persons.151 The right to worship is also stipulated by the Internal Regulations.152 The issue of respecting IAB TDF prisoners’ right to worship is rather complicated. The reason is that many factors affect the correctness of the answer to this question, including person’s identification with a particular religion, specificity of observance, the requirements imposed by the religious canons, and even personality and behavior of the person. The observers recorded different views on this issue received from prisoners and administration representatives. In some cases, the opinions may be polar within the same TDF. For example, the heads of the Ton, Issyk-Ata and Kemin District IAB TDFs explained that there were no conditions for observance by the detainees in their respective TDFs.153 Yet, some detainees held in these TDFs believe that such conditions do exist.154 In all other IAB TDFs, the detainees believe that it is impossible to avail of the right to observance due to lack of basic conditions. A Muslim, before joining the prayer (namaz), shall meet certain requirements (take certain actions), and the prayer will be deemed invalid if these requirements fail to be met. The first such condition is to be in the state of ritual purity, as well as cleanliness of the body, clothes and the place for the prayer.155 As described above, water is supplied only to seven TDFs, and detainees in the rest of the facilities receive water supplied by TDF officers-on-duty at a certain period of time. The volume of water for the detainees is determined at the TDF staff’s sole discretion. To confirm this, let us use the example from the monitoring findings described above. The detained woman wanted to wash herself and had been asking for boiled water for two days. Finally, members of TDF staff brought two small plastic mayonnaise tanks of water to her.156 Since the prayer should be done five times a day – at dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, late afternoon and at night - detained Muslims regularly face difficulties with ritual washing as it is not always possible to have enough water for this purpose. Due to lack of water and no possibility to get it, an alternative option for purification may be used – washing with soil and sand. However, in view of the specificity of detention in TDFs, prisoners are not able to use this option. Yet, some positive examples were discovered in the course of the monitoring. For instance, a woman defendant held the Nooken District IAB TDF told the observers that the TDF officers-on-duty supply the believers with water, and the latter pray in their cells. As concerns private religious life, the Bible states that for the prayer it is better to choose the place where hustle and noise are heard least of all, where one can hide from the eyes and ears, and even close the door so that the praying person would not be disturbed or distracted at the moment of prayer. However, none of the IAB TDFs have facilities specifically designated for worship. 151 154 155 156 152 153 Law on the procedure of the detention. Art. 16. Internal Regulations. Par. 3.1. Monitoring Report No. 17/16/Н/1; 5/4-8-10-11/НП/1. Monitoring Report No. 17/3/З/1.1;17/3/З/1.2; 5/4-8-10-11/З/1.1; 6/5/З/1.3 http://www.islaming.ru. Monitoring Report No. 5/5-7/О. 60