Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Turkmenistan.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in
Turkmenistan. Some of these links may
lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even
false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to
verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent
countries and/or regions. Meanwhile,
check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Turkmenistan U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/turkmenistan/
[accessed 10 August
2021] DISAPPEARANCE Opposition media
and NGOs did not report politically motivated disappearances during the year.
Nonetheless an NGO-led advocacy campaign, Prove They Are Alive!, maintained a list of reported disappeared prisoners.
The 2019 list included the names of 121 prisoners,
the same number as the previous year, including two releases and two new
names from 2018, although the NGO estimated the actual number to be in the
hundreds. The list included former ministers of foreign affairs Boris Shikhmuradov and Batyr Berdyev, former director of the Turkmenbashy
oil refinery Guychmyrad Esenov,
and many others accused of participation in an alleged 2002 assassination
attempt on previous president Saparmurat Niyazov. TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Although the
constitution and law prohibit mistreatment, in its January 2017 report (the
latest available) the UN Committee against Torture noted its concern at
“consistent allegations of widespread torture and ill-treatment, including
severe beatings, of persons deprived of their liberty, especially at the
moment of apprehension and during pretrial detention, mainly in order to
extract confessions.” Activists and former prisoners related mistreatment,
such as beating kidneys with plastic bottles full of water so bruises do not
show on the body and a practice known as sklonka,
in which prisoners are forced to stay in the open sun or cold for hours at a
time. In its 2019 review
of the country, Amnesty International stated, “Torture and other
ill-treatment is reported to be widespread.” Human Rights Watch in its 2019
report stated, “Torture and ill-treatment remain integral to Turkmenistan’s
prison system.” PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions
reportedly remained unsanitary, overcrowded, and in some cases life
threatening due to harsh treatment and inadequate medical care. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/turkmenistan/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 18 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION
FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND
INSURGENCIES? Prison conditions
are extremely harsh, and security forces routinely use torture to extract
confessions or punish inmates, which can result in deaths in custody. Turkmenistanis are also subject to enforced
disappearance; the Prove They Are Alive! human rights campaign reported that 121 people were
disappeared in a 2018 report. Suspended
lives: torture of the families of the disappeared in Turkmenistan Amnesty
International, 30 November 2017 www.refworld.org/docid/5a211fe74.html [accessed 3 December
2017] It has been 15
years since the alleged assassination attempt on the then President of Turkmenistan,
and 15 years since the families of those accused of the attack have been
waiting to receive information about the fate and whereabouts of their
husbands, brothers, fathers and sons. The fate of at least 80 prisoners, who
are subjected to enforced disappearance after the alleged assassination
attempt, remains unknown. The Turkmenistani
authorities are withholding all information and do not provide any official
documentation, even copies of court verdicts, to the family members.
Relatives of the disappeared, many of them women,
have spent years searching for truth and justice. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] TURKMENISTAN POLITICAL PRISONERS,
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES, AND TORTURE - More than a decade after their arrest and
show trials during several waves of repression under former President Niyazov, several dozen people remain victims of enforced
disappearances. They include former Foreign Minister Boris Shikhmuradov, his brother Konstantin, and Turkmenistan’s
former ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE), Batyr Berdiev. In
2014, Human Rights Watch received unverified information that several of the
disappeared had died in custody. Torture remains a
grave problem. A 2014 report by a coalition of independent human rights
groups, Prove They Are Alive!, described the torture of inmates in the Ovadan Tepe prison, a facility
shrouded in secrecy that houses many people believed to have been sentenced
on politically motivated charges. The government has persistently denied
access to independent human rights monitors, including the Red Cross and 10
United Nations special procedures. Central Asia:
Widespread Rights Abuse, Repression Human Rights Watch,
Berlin, 31 January 2013 www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/31/central-asia-widespread-rights-abuse-repression [accessed 14
February 2013] Turkmenistan failed
to take any meaningful steps to improve its longstanding abysmal rights
record despite a damning assessment in March by a key UN expert body, the
Human Rights Committee, which examined Turkmenistan’s compliance with the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and issued detailed
recommendations for steps to address the concerns it identified. The government
forcibly detains dissidents in psychiatric facilities and persecutes people
who fall out of government favor. Well-known political prisoners are serving lengthy
prison terms on fabricated charges while the country remains closed to any
independent human rights scrutiny. Independent civil society activists and
journalists cannot operate freely, and human rights defenders face a constant
threat of government reprisal. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/TKM/CO/1
(2011) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/turkmenistan2011.html [accessed 10 March
2013] C. Principal
subjects of concern and recommendations Torture and ill-treatment 6. The Committee is
deeply concerned over the numerous and consistent allegations about the
widespread practice of torture and ill-treatment of detainees in the State
party. According to reliable information presented to the Committee, persons
deprived of their liberty are tortured, ill-treated and threatened by public
officers, especially at the moment of apprehension and during pretrial
detention, to extract confessions and as an additional punishment after the
confession. This information confirms the concerns expressed by a number of
international bodies, inter alia, those expressed in the report of the
Secretary- General (A/61/489, paras. 38-40) and in the decisions of the
European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Kolesnik
v. Russia, Soldatenko v. Ukraine, Ryabkin v. Russia and Garabayev
v. Russia. While noting the existence of laws which prohibit, inter alia,
abuse of power and the use of violence by officials against individuals in
their custody for the purpose of obtaining evidence, the Committee is
concerned about the substantial gap between the legislative framework and its
practical implementation (arts. 2, 4, 12 and 16). Fundamental legal
safeguards 9. While noting
article 26 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on legal assistance, the Committee
expresses its serious concern at the State party’s failure in practice to
afford all persons deprived of their liberty, including detainees held in
temporary holding facilities (IVS), with all fundamental legal safeguards, as
referred to in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the Committee’s general comment No. 2
(2008) on the implementation of article 2 by States parties, from the very
outset of detention. The Committee is concerned that the Criminal Code allows
police officers to detain a person without the authorization of the
prosecutor general for 72 hours and without presentation to a judge for up to
one year. It is reported that detainees are frequently denied access to a
lawyer and that violence is inflicted by police officers to extract
confessions during that period of time. The Committee notes with concern
reports that torture and ill-treatment of minors is widespread at the moment
of apprehension and during pretrial detention (CRC/C/TKM/CO/1, para. 36)
(arts. 2, 11 and 12). Deaths in custody 16. The Committee
is deeply concerned about numerous and consistent reports on a number of
deaths in custody and on the alleged restrictions on independent forensic
examination into the cases of such deaths, including the case of Ogulsapar Muradova, who was
held incommunicado throughout her detention and died in custody under
suspicious circumstances. This case, including signs of torture, has been
well documented, and was taken up by the Secretary-General (A/61/489, para.
39) and several Special Rapporteurs (A/HRC/WG.6/3/TKM/2, para. 38) (arts. 2,
11, 12 and 16). Misuse of
psychiatric institutions 17. The Committee
is deeply concerned about numerous and consistent credible reports of misuse
of psychiatric hospitals to detain persons for reasons other than medical, in
particularly for the non-violent expression of his/her political views. The
Committee regrets that the State party has failed to reply to at least two
urgent appeals sent jointly by the Special Rapporteur on torture, the Special
Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Gurbandurdy
Durdykuliev, a political dissenter
(E/CN.4/2005/62/Add.1, para. 1817), and Sazak Durdymuradov, a journalist (A/HRC/10/44/Add.4, para. 239)
(arts. 2, 11 and 16), in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Coerced confessions 20. The Committee
notes the existence of national legislation guaranteeing the principle of
non-admissibility of coerced evidence in courts, such as article 45 of the
Constitution and article 25, paragraph 1, of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The Committee notes, however, with grave concern numerous, consistent and
credible reports that the use of forced confessions as evidence in courts is
widespread in the State party and that such practices persist owing to the
impunity of guilty parties. The Committee expresses concern about the lack of
information provided by the State party regarding any officials who may have
been prosecuted and punished for extracting confessions (art. 15). AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER
ILL-TREATMENT There were credible
allegations of torture and other ill-treatment by security forces against
people suspected of criminal offences. These included electric shocks,
asphyxiation, rape, forcibly administering psychotropic drugs, deprivation of
food and drink and exposure to extreme cold. Impunity for such abuses
remained the norm and complaints by victims were rarely pursued. ENFORCED
DISAPPEARANCES AND INCOMMUNICADO DETENTION The whereabouts of
dozens of people convicted in unfair trials in 2002 and 2003 for the alleged
assassination attempt on then President Niyazov
remained unknown. Relatives had heard nothing for over 10 years, and did not
know if their loved ones were still alive. The authorities reportedly
harassed and intimidated relatives of detainees who tried to lodge appeals. Despite allegations
by non-government sources that at least eight of those convicted had died in
detention, the authorities failed to disclose any information or open
investigations. Tirkish Tyrmyev, former Commander of Border Troops of
Turkmenistan, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in 2002 for abuse of
power. His relatives did not know his location but reported in March that he
had been given an additional seven-year sentence as his release date
approached, allegedly for a crime against a prison guard. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 7 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/turkmenistan [accessed 14
February 2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) contributor Sazak Durdymuradov was held in a psychiatric hospital for two weeks
in the summer of 2008, and reported that he had been beaten and tortured in
custody. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61681.htm [accessed 14
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61681.htm [accessed 7 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, security officials tortured, routinely
beat, and used excessive force against criminal suspects, prisoners, and
individuals critical of the government. Police abuse also targeted religious
minorities (see section 2.c.). For example in
April police detained private educator Alexander Fataliyev
for nine days, beat him, and threatened him with death. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Turkmenistan", http://gvnet.com/torture/Turkmenistan.htm, [accessed
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