RFE/RL Contributor Held At Infamous Turkmen Psychiatric Hospital
Sazak Durdymuradov
June 27, 2008
RFE/RL has learned that Sazak Durdymuradov, a contributor to its Turkmen Service, is being held at an infamous psychiatric clinic in remote eastern Turkmenistan.
It remains unclear why officials have targeted Durdymuradov. He was detained on June 20 at his home in Baharden, some 200 kilometers west of the capital, Ashgabat.
His family last saw him on June 24, when Durdymuradov’s wife visited him in a Baharden detention center. Durdymuradov told his wife that he had been beaten and tortured. He reportedly said he'd been subjected to electric shocks after refusing to make a written promise not to work for RFE/RL.
Read RFE/RL correspondent Gulnoza Saidazimova's latest report about Durdymuradov's case here.
Durdymuradov's incarceration came as a delegation from the EU was in Ashgabat to talk about human rights, and after Ashgabat had promised that democratic reforms were on the horizon.