More than 1,000 prisoners in Kyrgyzstan have sewn their lips together after a 10-day hunger strike in apparent protest at poor jail conditions.
Meanwhile, authorities blamed organised criminal gangs for instigating the stunt, who they said resent attempts to break the power the gangs wield in prisons.
Prisoners have staged numerous protests over the years, but the sewing of lips has been one of the most unusual and shocking ways to bring attention to the situation.
Inmates were reported to have sewn their lips together with strands of coarse fibre and even pieces of wire, leaving enough space to take in liquids, but not enough to eat food.
A 22-year-old, who gave his name only as Yevgeny, said through sewn lips that he was "suffering for justice".
But the facility's director, Mars Zhusupbekov, said that the protest was a reaction to his own attempts to wipe out the influence of criminal gangs.
He said a group of 23 inmates was allowed to roam the prison freely, extorting money from others, adding that "intimidated prisoners would call their relatives and ask them to sell their apartment or car, and then transfer the money to the gang in jail".
According to Mr Zhusupbekov, inmates only started to sew their lips together - an act he said was forced on frightened prisoners by the criminal gang in his facility - after raids on cells in mid-January to stamp out the thugs.
He went on to dismiss complaints about poor prison conditions. "This is not a hotel, this is not a holiday resort, they should serve their time," he said.
But one prisoner on the hunger strike disagreed, saying: "We were just decorating our cell when they threw in a smoke grenade and then they beat us all... and so we are starving and demanding this not happen again and that the perpetrator be punished."
Kyrgyzstan, a poor ex-Soviet nation of 5.3 million, holds around 7,600 inmates in its detention centres in which powerful criminal syndicates have substantial influence.
Almost 400 prisoners bound their lips at Zhusupbekov's jail, and as many as 800 others are believed to have done the same in other jails in what they say is an act of solidarity.
Authorities insist only organised criminal networks could have arranged such a protest.
Reforming the country's jails is seen as an urgent priority by President Almazbek Atambayev's government, which was elected following a violent street uprising in April 2010.
Signs of unrest are viewed with deep apprehension in the West because Kyrgyzstan hosts a US air base that serves as an important transportation hub for military operations in nearby Afghanistan.
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