Political grounds

The list of convicts pardoned in September in Turkmenistan included those sentenced on political grounds. The press has already provided coverage on some of the released prisoners. Below are two more cases.

Vyacheslav Nigmatulin was convicted in January 2005. He was the chief executive of the private company Gash, specializing in outdoor advertising and equipped with machinery to print large-circulation materials. According to our sources, he was accused of producing anti-government leaflets, circulated in Ashgabat in August 2004.

The criminal case of Nurgeldi Orazmammedov, convicted on 10 January 2007 by the Supreme Court of Turkmenistan and sentenced to three years imprisonment, can also be classified as a politically-motivated criminal case. Thus he was convicted under the new regime.

N. Orazmammedov is one of the medical doctors who worked in the medical and diagnostics centre named after Niyazov in Ashgabat, and according to the criminal investigation changed a patient's diagnosis to conceal a crime. The patient's name was G. Orazsakhedova, daughter-in-law of the former Parliament speaker O. Ataev who, pursuant to the Constitution, was supposed to lead the country after S. Niyazov's, but was arrested and accused on criminal charges.

The Turkmen press described the case in the following way: "O. Ataev did not want to recognize G. Orazsakhedova as a member of the family, constantly humiliated and offended her by creating an unbearable home environment for her. As a result, unable to tolerate repeated attacks, offence and defamation G. Orazsakhedova attempted suicide by swallowing 60 pills of diphenhydramine hydrochloride and was delivered unconscious to the intensive care department at the medical and diagnostics centre named after Niyazov in Ashgabat. Thanks to the prompt action taken by the doctors, the young woman was rescued but afterwards the diagnosis "acute medical poisoning" was changed to "epilepsy". However, as a result of the investigation based on the testimony of doctors and other witnesses, O. Ataev's guilt was fully proved and established".

Thus, to prove O. Ataev's guilt, the medical doctors had to be convicted, among whom was Nurgeldi Orazmammedov.

Apparently, among the list of pardoned there are people who had been convicted on political grounds. Nevertheless, even more of such people still remain in detention serving sentences ruled by the court.

Source: TIHR