Committee for the Protection of Political Prisoners: Save the Poisoned Prisoners

The Civil Committee for the Protection of Political Hostages and Prisoners in Tajikistan issued a statement calling on human rights organizations in Tajikistan to pressure the government to “provide urgent medical assistance to sick prisoners and to extract them from their critical condition.”

Photo: Internet

The Civil Committee for the Protection of Political Hostages and Prisoners in Tajikistan urged the Ombudsman of Tajikistan to urgently visit the prison along with representatives of civil society, to familiarize themselves with the condition of the sick, and to explain the situation to the public.

In its statement, the committee also called on Amnesty International, the UN Human Rights Committee, and the organization Reporters Without Borders to visit the prison, assess the condition of the poisoned prisoners, and take effective steps to improve their situation.

At the end of the statement, the Civil Committee for the Protection of Political Hostages and Prisoners in Tajikistan urged the authorities to “find the real culprits of this tragedy, hold them accountable, and inform the public about these actions.”

The statement emphasizes that earlier AЗDA TV reported that about 40 prisoners in the new prison in the city of Vahdat were poisoned and are on the brink of death.

According to sources from AЗDA TV, in the correctional colony YS 3/1 of the Main Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments of the Ministry of Justice of Tajikistan (GUIUN MJ RT), which was recently built near the Dushanbe-Vahdat highway, about 40 prisoners were poisoned in the past week. Currently, the sick are hospitalized in the medical unit of the colony, in the corridors, and some are in their cells.

According to AЗDA TV, the source of the poisoning of the prisoners was an underground reservoir of the colony, where the drinking water became contaminated due to violations of storage conditions.