Patients brutally beaten in Bishkek (video)

On January 19, Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security detained eight employees of the illegally operating “Road to Life” rehabilitation center. Sputnik Kyrgyzstan reported this.

According to special services, the facility was supposed to provide psychiatric assistance to people suffering from various forms of drug addiction. However, its staff operated without higher medical education, and some of them had previously been treated at the same center.

The Kyrgyz Prosecutor General’s Office reported that, on the instructions of the center’s management, employees tied seriously ill patients’ arms and legs to their beds and subjected them to severe beatings using sticks and electroshock devices. Those who refused to carry out these orders were placed in isolation and kept in diapers for seven to eight days.

It was also established that the center failed to follow basic principles of separating patients based on infectious diseases. All patients were kept together under the same conditions, the statement said.

The State Committee for National Security noted that patients’ relatives were unaware of such “treatment methods.” It was also reported that the cost of treatment amounted to 80,000 Kyrgyz soms per month, equivalent to about 11 million Uzbek sums.

As a result of investigative measures conducted in accordance with the requirements of Article 96 of the country’s Criminal Procedure Code, the suspects were detained and taken to a temporary detention facility of the Bishkek City Internal Affairs Department. Investigative actions are currently ongoing.