HRW calls on EU and US to demand from Turkmen authorities to reveal fate and release activist Azat Isakov

At the end of October, a Turkmen activist who was in Russia, Azat Isakov , disappeared . On October 20, he managed to report that the police had come for him and since then contact with him has disappeared. Later, in his response to a request to find a missing citizen of Turkmenistan, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation said that on October 22 Isakov flew to Turkmenabat.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed its concern in this regard . Earlier, the activist reported that he and his family members living in Turkmenistan had repeatedly received threats from the Turkmen special services, demanding that he stop speaking.

As stated in the report of HRW, Isakov has repeatedly said that he is not going to return to his homeland. It is unclear how he was able to fly, as Turkmenistan has suspended all international flights. In addition, he did not have a passport, without which it is impossible to fly out.

“There are many questions regarding the transportation of the activist from Russia to Turkmenistan, but there is no doubt that he is now in prison and has become another victim of enforced disappearances. He is threatened with torture and ill-treatment, widespread in the Turkmen penitentiary institutions, ”HRW notes.

Human rights activists are urging the government of Turkmenistan to immediately report Isakov's whereabouts and to release him, adding that the same should be done by the administration of US President Joseph Biden and the European Union, which hold annual human rights meetings with representatives of Turkmenistan.

Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan

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