Turkmenistan: AI says dozens of people subjected to enforced disappearances

An Amnesty International document on Turkmenistan says that people continue to be of risk of human rights violations in Turkmenistan, including enforced disappearances.

(...) Amnesty International is gravely concerned that dozens of people, including the brothers Boris and Konstantin Shikhmuradov, have been subjected to enforced disappearance in Turkmenistan.

In December 2002 and January 2003 at least 59 people were convicted in unfair trials to sentences ranging between five years’ imprisonment and life imprisonment for their alleged involvement in an armed attack on then President Saparmurad Niyazov in November 2002. Many of them were labelled as “traitors of the motherland”. Many were reportedly also tortured by law enforcement officers in pre-trial detention.

Boris Shikhmuradov, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in a closed trial on 29 December 2002. The People’s Council reportedly increased his sentence to life imprisonment the next day. His brother Konstantin Shikhmuradov was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment. Boris Shikhmuradov’s wife, Tatyana Shikhmuradova, told Amnesty International shortly after her husband stood trial: “It is impossible to find out whether the lawyers were allowed to speak, whether any witnesses were questioned [and] who chaired the hearing.”

The authorities continue to withhold information about the whereabouts of this group of prisoners; deny them all access to families and independent bodies including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and refuse to respond to allegations that at least eight of them died in custody. There were rumours that two of them, Boris Shikhmuradov and Batyr Berdyev, had died. However, in September 2007 President Berdymukhamedov was quoted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as saying that he was positive that they were alive. This is the only piece of information that gives the two men’s relatives hope the men still live.

Since her husband’s arrest, Tatyana Shikhmuradova has regularly written letters to government officials including former President Niyazov, President Berdymukhamedov, the Prosecutor General, the Minister of Justice and the Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Russia on behalf of her husband and her brother-in-law. Konstantin Shikhmuradov’s wife Ayna Shikhmuradova regularly goes to the Department of the Execution of Punishments asking for information about her husband and Boris Shikhmuradov. However, neither women has been given any information and their letters to government officials have remained unanswered.

According to non-governmental sources, most of the prisoners are held in the Ovadan-depe prison, not far from the capital, Ashgabad, known for its particularly harsh conditions. However, Amnesty International has not been able to verify this information as the authorities have to date not disclosed the prisoners’ whereabouts.

Amnesty International calls on the government of Turkmenistan to:

• publicly condemn enforced disappearance under any circumstances, and commit to ending the practice - including by immediately revealing the fate and whereabouts of all persons who have been subjected to enforced disappearance, including Boris and Konstantin Shikhmuradov;

• investigate all cases of enforced disappearance and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice, in fair trials without imposing the death penalty;

• ensure Boris Shikhmuradov and Konstantin Shikhmuradov, as well as other people who had been sentenced to long-term imprisonments following the November 2002 events, are retried in proceedings which meet international standards of fairness and to which international trial observers have access;

• ensure that victims of enforced disappearance and their families are given full reparation for their suffering.

(...)

(Source: Amnesty International, Document Turkmenistan: Individuals continue to be at risk of violations in Turkmenistan)