KYRGYZSTAN. UZBEK RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PRAISE CONDITIONS IN KYRGYZ DEATH ROW CELL

the leaders of the Uzbek public association ‘Mothers Against the Death Penalty and Torture’, Tamara Chikunova and Dilobar Xudoberganova, shared their views with journalists at a news conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, after visiting a death row cell at Bishkek’s remand centre No. 1.
Chikunova said that the conditions in the Osh remand centre were far better than in the death row cells in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. "Death row inmates [in Tashkent] wear stripy clothes like those in concentration camps. They are held in very severe conditions. Cells are damp. Many of the inmates suffer from TB. There is no proper medical service and food there. Inmates in Bishkek feel like real human beings. They are allowed to wear warm clothes. Food and medical service are good there," she said.
The Uzbek rights activist welcomed the Kyrgyz authorities' decision to prolong a moratorium on the death penalty until it was abolished completely.
She said that executions in Uzbekistan were carried out soon after the passing of sentence and that the date of execution was kept secret from the death row inmates and that their place of burial was withheld from their relatives.
Information on the number of executed inmates was considered a state secret, Chikunova said, adding that over 100 inmates a year were executed in Uzbekistan.