A doctor of the Balti Psychoneurological Hospital was arrested by the police on suspicion that he raped a number of female patients. It is presumed that he abused the victims psychologically, threatening them they will be put in the severe regime block if they do not obey or report the rape, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the police were alerted on February 2. A 40-year-old patient, who is an invalid of the second disability degree, said that she was raped by the doctor who is treating her. When subject to a psychiatric examination, the woman turned out to be mentally healthy. In the woman’s room, there were found objects that can confirm the rape. A criminal case was started and the doctor was questioned as a suspect. He is 50 and is from Balti. So far the police have received six similar complaints from different patients of the same institution. Thus, there were identified seven victims who had been raped by the doctors in 2011-2013. On February 4, the doctor was put under arrest for 30 days. Contcated by Info-Prim Neo, director of the Human Rights Institute (IDOM) Vanu Jereghi said the situation concerning the observance of human rights in institutions of the kind is deplorable. The IDOM started to examine the state of affairs at psychiatric institutions in 2002 and informed the authorities that these patients need special attention. “In detention places the prosecutors check the detention conditions to see if the prisoners are not ill-treated, but in such kinds of institutions nobody monitors the situation and this is a major problem,” said Vanu Jereghi. He also said he knows cases when patients were tied to the bed or the female patients were forced to have an abortion if they remained pregnant, but the cases remained unsolved as it is hard to prove something in such cases.