Kyrgyzstan's Female Prisoners Claim Innocence

BISHKEK -- The Kyrgyz Ombudsman's Office says a survey of the inmates in the country's only women's jail showed that 80 percent of them do not consider themselves guilty of a crime, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun and several of his colleagues visited the prison in the village of Stepnoye in the northern Chui Oblast earlier this week.

Akun said the Ombudsman's Office will help those prisoners who wish to lodge an appeal of their convictions. He said a special representative will visit the jail again soon to start working on individual appeals.

The women's prison currently has 283 convicts.

Read more in Kyrgyz
here