Vikram Ruzakhunov is a laureate of many international music festivals, the leader of the Bishkek jazz orchestra. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan, which is investigating the beating and torture that Ruzakhundov was subjected to in January 2022 after being detained at the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border, invited him to come to the Republic of Kazakhstan at the end of July to help with the investigation. .

Recall that during the mass unrest that swept across the country in early January, Kazakh authorities reported participating in an attempt to seize state institutions from foreign terrorists. And as evidence, they showed on TV the confession, as they claimed, of one of the Kyrgyz mercenaries. In a beaten “unemployed from Bishkek”, who allegedly agreed to 90 thousand tenge (183 euros in terms of. – Red.) to join the riots in Almaty, music lovers immediately recognized the popular Central Asian jazz pianist Vikram Ruzakhunov.

What really happened to him in January in Kazakhstan and how things are with the investigation into his beating and torture, the musician said in an interview with DW.

Deutsche Welle: Vikram, on July 26, the Kazakhstan Prosecutor General’s Office released a report on ongoing negotiations regarding your arrival in Almaty to assist in the investigation. You will come?

Vikram Ruzahunov: This message from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan made the news level in the media. I received an official invitation to come to Kazakhstan only from the Anti-Corruption Committee. This happened in February, when a criminal case for torture was opened against me.

But since then, the authorities in Kazakhstan have not found a single person among the people who tortured me. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan reports that it is not possible to determine the circle of suspected persons for various reasons. Allegedly, there are no videos, visitor registration records and handovers, and all employees involved were wearing masks.

– That is, do you not believe that the investigation conducted by Kazakhstan’s law enforcement agencies is impartial and that the perpetrators will be held accountable?

– Not yet. How can it be that there are no videos and logs? They were able to film me beaten up for a propaganda broadcast on the Qazaqstan TV channel, but couldn’t find the video from the cameras in the detention center and the police building?

It is necessary to know exactly who brought me and when, because there is a date, time and place. Also, since they can’t find the investigators who beat me up during interrogations, they must involve the head of the police department. But they don’t. But they successfully find all who are considered participants in “anti-government protests”. They are found in CCTV camera records, phone calls and smartphone geolocation, based on testimonials. They cannot find only those who tortured people.

– And under what circumstances were you arrested in Kazakhstan in January? And how long were they trapped?

– When the rallies started, following the recommendations of the business partners who invited me to Almaty, I was sitting in a rented apartment from the 4th to the 6th of January. But grocery stores stopped working, it was impossible to withdraw money due to the closing of ATMs.

When the connection and the Internet were muffled, I couldn’t communicate with anyone. For example, on January 6th, my mother had a birthday and I couldn’t even congratulate her. So on January 7, 2022, at Sairan bus station, I got into a taxi, in which there were three more senior citizens of Kazakhstan, and drove this car along the Almaty-Kordai highway to return home to Bishkek.

– The taxi you were in, where did you stop? Outside Almaty?

– It happened when we arrived at the village of Targap (80 km from Almaty. – Red.) around 4 pm. There was a checkpoint, there were camouflaged soldiers. They stopped every car and checked every person’s documents. As soon as one of the soldiers saw my Kyrgyzstan passport, he immediately ordered me out of the car, hit me on the head with an iron bat and took me in for inspection.

They brought a suitcase, a backpack with a laptop from the car and started scattering all my stuff. They said things were stolen in Almaty, started accusing them of looting, attending rallies and killing soldiers.

– Have you somehow tried to explain to them that you have nothing to do with the rallies?

– I asked them to look at my cell phone, where there are photos that show that I was wearing the same clothes long before I arrived in Kazakhstan. They didn’t care. They stripped me down to my T-shirt, took me behind a shed by the side of the road and continued to beat me there – they beat me in the head, stomach and legs.

I was immediately shocked because I didn’t understand what was happening. Having stopped beating me, the military ordered me to kneel down and then put the barrel of a machine gun on my head…

– Cruel. And you have to understand, was this just the beginning?

– Yea. The soldier who hit me then took me to a dilapidated barn where there were already about 30 people. By nightfall, we had tripled in number. Among the detainees were people of different nationalities. In the evening, we were classified as belonging to one country or another and taken to the detention center in the village of Koshmambet.

There we were beaten with punches and kicks, stripped down to our underpants, forced to lie face down on the cold, dirty floor, beaten in the spine with the butt of a machine gun. They tried to crush my head with metal chains, beat me with wooden and metal sticks on my body, used a stun gun, strangled me and twisted my arms.

– Did you ask these people to contact their relatives or acquaintances?

– I asked, but it was useless. They didn’t even provide medical care to anyone, they didn’t let them sleep, they limited food, they demanded to see how others were being tortured. They tried to get detainees to confess to something they had not committed on video camera.

They told me, “Either you will tell on camera that you flew to Almaty for money to participate in the rally, or we will continue to beat you to death.” The day before, January 8, my ribs were already broken, which damaged my lung, which made me suffocate. My “confession”, which I was forced to memorize, was seen all over the world.

– After you returned home to Bishkek, did the Kazakh side offer any compensation for the damage done to your health?

– They were silent until the moment I started to broach the topic of torture. And as soon as I did that, the first reaction immediately followed – they wrote a rebuttal that there was no torture, that I was taken to the cell already wounded and it was not possible to find out the reasons for his appearance. To date, neither Kazakhstan’s authorities nor law enforcement agencies have received even an official apology.

– Is there any chance that you will come to Kazakhstan again with your concerts in the near future?

– I receive offers and invitations to come with shows in Astana and other cities in Kazakhstan. But for now I’m afraid to go there for security reasons.

The memories of the pain and fear experienced have not yet passed. You know, living in Kyrgyzstan, I never attended any marches or rallies. He led a completely apolitical life. And probably I myself would have believed in terrorists (who took part in protests and riots in Kazakhstan. – Red.), if I hadn’t been in that place and hadn’t experienced it all, I wouldn’t have seen it all with my own eyes.

After I had recovered a little, an image appeared in front of me of what was happening in those days in Kazakhstan: the protests themselves were peaceful. People went to the rally and wanted a dialogue with the government. But the dialog didn’t work.