Inmates of Dushanbe-based penal colony # 1 are expected to be moved to a new penal colony in Vahdat soon.
“Construction of a new high-security penal colony in Vahdat Township has been completed and inmates of penal colony # 1 will be transferred to the new penal colony in Vahdat a month before the Navrouz holiday (Navrouz holiday is celebrated in Tajikistan on March 21),” the chief of the Main Directorate for the Execution of Criminal Penalties at the Ministry of Justice, Mansourjon Umarov, told Asia-Plus in an interview Thursday afternoon.
According to the Penitentiary System at the Ministry of Justice of Tajikistan, one of Bulgarian companies has designed the new penal colony.
The construction of a cell-type prison, which will accommodate 2,000 inmates, began in Vahdat in 2010.
As it had been reported earlier, head of Penal Reform International (PRI)’s office for Central Asia, Azamat Shambilov, visited the old Vahdat high-security penal colony before it became the scene of a deadly riot on May 19, 2019. He visited the penal colony earlier 2019.
During a weekly talk show aired by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Shambilov said that one of the facility's major issues was the lack of separate cells.
Instead, prisoners were being held in large groups — of up to 200 people — in big barracks, Shambilov said, calling it a "legacy of the Soviet Gulag."
Meanwhile, the pretrial detention facility of the Ministry Justice will still remain in Dushanbe.
“The new facility is not able to accommodate both inmates of penal colony # 1 and those being held in the pretrial detention facility. It is still unknown whether the pretrial detention facility will be moved from Dushanbe or not,” Umarov said.
Recall, the penitentiary system has applied to the government for allotment of land for construction of a new pretrial detention facility of the Ministry Justice.
The Penitentiary System is responsible for managing the prison system in Tajikistan and has been part of the Ministry of Justice since 2002. Its 18 penitentiary institutions reportedly include eight correctional colonies (including one colony for women), one colony for juveniles, one prison and five pre-trial detention centers. There are also three regional units responsible for the execution of non-custodial sanctions.
