On Monday, at about 12 noon in St. Petersburg, while checking documents at the Chkalovskaya metro station, a citizen of Turkmenistan Akhmet Dzhumadurdyev was detained , Memorial HRC reports.

According to Dzhumadurdyev, during an interview conducted by a prosecutor, he was told that one of the reasons for the detention was that he was on the interstate wanted list. According to reports, the special services of Turkmenistan initiated a search for him on religious grounds, and his cousin was convicted in Turkmenistan in the same case for 25 years.

In 2017, the Turkmen authorities put Dzhumadurdyev on a wanted list in connection with an unofficial religious group. In December of the same year, he was detained at the border control at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg. A year later, he was released, as the Russian prosecutor's office found no grounds for his extradition.

In Turkmenistan, Akhmet's older brother, Arslan Dzhumadurdyev , was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a trumped-up case of religious extremism.

In July 2021, Akhmet illegally crossed the Russian-Estonian border across the Narva River to seek asylum in Estonia. However, he was expelled to Russia.

In October 2021, the man was placed in the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens (TsVSIG), after a decision was made to deport him and ban him from entering Russia until 2055. But in December, the ECtHR suspended Dzhumadurdyev's deportation by applying Rule 39.

Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan