BISHKEK, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 500 people have been convicted of extremist crimes in Kyrgyzstan, an official told the country's Kabar News Agency on Thursday.
At the Central Asian Dialogue on Effective Prison Management of Violent Extremist and Terrorist Offenders held in Bishkek, Chief of the Legal Support Department Aivaz Kadyrov said that 96 of the criminals are kept in investigatory jails, 164 in closed institutions, 206 in penal colonies and 16 sentenced to life imprisonment.
He also added that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of people convicted of crimes of a terrorist nature or an extremist orientation in Kyrgyzstan.
The dialogue was organized by the Penal Reform International Office (PRI) in collaboration with the State Service for Punishment Execution of the Kyrgyz Republic and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The forum brought together representatives of penitentiary services from five central Asia countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
