Coalition calls for activist's release

In a further blow to Turkmenistan's human rights record, a coalition of international rights groups condemned the three-year sentence handed down to Turkmen environmental activist Farid Tukhbatullin on Wednesday. "We are united in our opposition to this verdict," Judit Arenas, a spokeswoman for the international watchdog group, Amnesty International (AI), told IRIN from London. “This is one case in which the five organisations are fully united in condemning the fact that an innocent man could be sentenced solely for expressing his beliefs.“ The group, along with Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), the International League for Human Rights (ILHR), and the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Centre, have jointly called for the immediate and unconditional release of Tukhbatullin, issuing at the same time an appeal to the international community to press Ashgabat for his release. "Farid Tukhbatullin is an innocent man, wrongly convicted in judicial proceedings that did not meet international standards for fair trial," the coalition said in a statement. "We believe the charges against him were brought solely to punish him for exercising his internationally recognised right to freedom of expression and for his peaceful work as a civil society activist." According to the statement, the first charge against Tukhbatullin relates to an incident when Turkmen border guards for unknown reasons failed to stamp his passport upon his return from Uzbekistan, while the later concerns the activist's attendance at an international conference organised by the IHF and the Memorial Centre, which was devoted to rights issues ranging from freedom of expression to the rights of the child. Moreover, he was charged with refusing to disclose information about an alleged plot by exiled opposition groups to carry out an armed coup which, according to the authorities, was discussed at the conference. However, delegates of the five-party coalition that attended the conference staunchly refuted that claim, maintaining no discussions were ever held on the overthrow of the government. “An armed coup was never on the agenda of this conference,” executive director of the Helsinki Federation, Aaron Rhodes told IRIN from the Austrian capital Vienna. “On the contrary, all participants advocated peaceful means of improving human rights protection,” he maintained. Echoing that, Arenas noted that Amnesty, along with the four other organisations, were all present at the conference and no discussions of a government overthrow were ever discussed. Ironically, the verdict comes just two days after an official visit to the Turkmen capital by Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Chairman-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), where he discussed a number of issues, including human rights, terrorism and future cooperation between the OSCE and Turkmenistan. During his one-day visit, the Dutch Chairman-in-Office mentioned that he had drawn the attention of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov to specific human rights concerns, including the detention of Tukhbatullin. "The President has assured me that Mr Tukhbatullin will be released soon," Minister de Hoop Scheffer said. Asked to comment on the verdict, Stella Ronner, spokeswoman for the OSCE chairmanship told IRIN from the Dutch city of The Hague, it was premature to comment. “We have requested the OSCE centre in Ashgabat for more details on the situation,” she said, adding they would like to know whether there was a possibility, despite the verdict, that he might be pardoned. “That in a way, was the promise we were given by the president,” she maintained. Meanwhile, the coalition of rights organisations have approached the UN Deputy High Commissioner on Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, to take up the issue, on his visit to the Turkmen capital scheduled for Monday. Additionally, they plan on issuing joint statements in the future to better highlight human rights abuses in the reclusive Central Asian state.