Surge of paedophilia in Kazakhstan: Prosecutor General raises alarm

During the meeting in Astana dedicated to sexual integrity, Attorney General of Kazakhstan Askhat Daulbaev expressed concern about the recent surge of violence against children, Tengrinews reports.

"Dangers for children of all ages today are gaining a sharp and large scale. In 2010, 491 children became victim of rapists, in 2014 there were 943 such cases. And today, such cases continue to be recorded on a daily basis. Since the beginning of this month, 16 cases of sexual abuse of minors have been registered," Daulbayev said.

"This year has seen an upsurge of such violations, which in the first five months totaled at 632 cases, including two egregious cases of long-term confinement and violence against minors in Almaty Oblast and East Kazakhstan Oblast. Yesterday there were two case of criminal sexual offences against minors recorded in Atyrau Oblast and North Kazakhstan Oblast. Let's be honest, despite the clear deterioration of the rule of law in this area, no one has raised the alarm, including the prosecutors," he said on June 11.

The Kazakh Attorney General spoke of the latest data from the Internet Association, according to which a large number of child pornography and child abuse videos were penetrating the Kazakhstan Internet space.

He added that the quality of investigative process in Kazakhstan had much to be desired. &ldquoCases are red taped or hidden," he said.

Over the past five years, almost 3,000 criminal sexual offenses were left unsolved, including 605 against minors.

During the meeting, Deputy Attorney General Nurmakhanbet Issayev said that it was time to consider castration as a preventive measure.

"One of the preventive measures, although it is debatable, is castration, voluntary or forced, chemical or physical. In many countries, including in Russia, it is introduced in order to reduce the number of repeated offences and protect young children," he said.

He recommended Kazakh law enforcement, health and social protection agencies to carefully and thoroughly consider this issue. In addition, Issayev point out the insufficiency of measures taken to isolate rapists from the society.

"Up to a hundred of rapists are released from prisons every year, and there is no guarantee that they will not go back to the old ways. The argument of some people that repetition of this type of crimes is very low cannot be taken into account, because the latency of these crimes is very high (...). It is therefore necessary to subject such persons to psychological and psychiatric examination to establish the reasons behind their crimes and identify the presence of physical pathologies or sadistic inclinations in them," Deputy Attorney General of Kazakhstan said.

He cited an example when in Ust-Kamenogorsk a citizen convicted in 2000 for a sexual crime and freed in 2005, committed a sexual offence just several months after being released. Upon his second release after 10 years in February this year, just two weeks later, he again committed a crime against a child.

According to the Prosecutor of Kazakhstan General Daulbayev, sexual offenses are also caused by a set of problems of socio-economic, legal and moral nature.

"The core one is the general decline of morality and ethics in the Kazakh society. These factors are exacerbated by the availability of illegal content that cultivates violence, cruelty and pornography on the Internet. The population, including children, has unlimited access to social networks, where they are free to view and distribute such videos," Daulbayev said.

Reporting by Assel Satayeva, writing by Dinara Urazova