Head of EU Delegation to Uzbekistan welcomes decision to close down Jaslyk prison

AKIPRESS.COM - Head of the EU Delegation to Uzbekistan Eduard Stiprais welcomed the decision of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to close the notorious Jaslyk prison, CA-News reports. This decision will allow to bring the cooperation between Uzbekistan and the European Union to a new level, he said.
President Mirziyoyev has signed the order on closure of the prison No. 19 in Jaslyk prison in Kungrad district on August 2.
Several international human rights organizations welcomed the decision of Uzbekistan to shut down this prison.
Steve Swerdlow, Human Rights Watch's Uzbekistan expert, welcomed President Mirziyoyev's decision to close down Jaslyk prison, which has for decades been known as the torture colony.
"One of the reasons this was so important is because the United Nations and many human rights groups, for almost two decades, had called for Jaslyk to be closed. The reason was because too many cases of severe torture of prisoners that occurred there, in addition to conditions of confinement that did not conform to international standards," he said in a comment for VOA.
The Jaslyk prison was criticized by human rights groups for bad conditions, cruel treatment of prisoners, held for political and religious activities.