ASTANA -- The Kazakh Interior Ministry has announced that all 16 prisoners killed during a failed jailbreak in July have been identified, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Interior Ministry spokesman Nurdilda Oraz told journalists in Astana that the last four bodies were identified last week.
"Twelve bodies were identified at once, while the remaining four were completely unrecognizable, and so additional tests have been carried out to identify them," Oraz said.
On the night of July 10-11, a group of inmates at labor camp AK-159/21 in the town of Balkhas, in the central Qaraghandy Oblast, killed a guard and tried to escape.
Kazakh officials reported in July that 12 of them committed suicide by detonating a hand-made explosive device when riot police surrounded them in the penitentiary's industrial section.
They also said at the time that four inmates managed to escape, which contradicts the latest report of 16 bodies being identified.
Read more in Kazkah here
Interior Ministry spokesman Nurdilda Oraz told journalists in Astana that the last four bodies were identified last week.
"Twelve bodies were identified at once, while the remaining four were completely unrecognizable, and so additional tests have been carried out to identify them," Oraz said.
On the night of July 10-11, a group of inmates at labor camp AK-159/21 in the town of Balkhas, in the central Qaraghandy Oblast, killed a guard and tried to escape.
Kazakh officials reported in July that 12 of them committed suicide by detonating a hand-made explosive device when riot police surrounded them in the penitentiary's industrial section.
They also said at the time that four inmates managed to escape, which contradicts the latest report of 16 bodies being identified.
Read more in Kazkah here