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Update: Crime boss ordered riots in Kyrgyz prisons - justice minister

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BISHKEK, November 1 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyz Deputy Justice Minister Sergei Zubov said Tuesday that crime boss Aziz Batukayev had ordered the inmate riots that erupted this morning in at least seven high-security penitentiaries and detention centers.

"Riots and uprisings took place today at virtually all [penal] colonies and detention facilities," Zubov told a news conference, adding that they were carried out under the orders of crime boss Batukayev.

Zubov said the situation was returning to normal but inmates at three penitentiaries were still on a hunger strike.

Kapar Mukeev, head of Kyrgyzstan's penitentiary service, who was wounded Monday while taking part in a police raid on the Moldovanovka penal colony, said he had communicated with Batukayev several times, requesting that he let law enforcement agencies into the facility to investigate the murder of parliament member Tynychbek Akmatbayev by inmates October 20.

Batukayev is serving his sentence in the Moldovanka penal colony N13, 12 miles north of Bishkek. The raid was launched to move him from the facility's hospital to a detention center in the capital. Other inmates opened fire in protest, leaving 20 prisoners dead.

"Batukayev's 'apartments' [in the prison] were equipped as an up-to-date office, including air-conditioners, TV sets, and computers," a senior prosecutor said, adding that authorities had found weapons, including two assault rifles and four guns, in the "office."

"Photos of Basayev and Maskhadov [Chechen militant warlords] were on the walls of the room," he said.

Abdugaparov said Batukayev had also had three horses, 15 goats, and a pack of dogs, which he had sicced on police during the raid, adding that the crime boss had used inmates and four women, including his wife, who was visiting the facility, as "live shields."

The joint news conference, held by Kyrgyzstan's Justice Ministry and the Prosecutor General's Office, was the first official reaction by Kyrgyz authorities, who had earlier refused to comment.

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