Watchdog

Prominent Turkmen environmental activist Andrei Zatoka has been sentenced to five years in prison for hooliganism, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports.

Zatoka, 53, was found guilty in a court in Dashoguz of attacking a man in a market in the northern Turkmen city on October 20.

His supporters say he was attacked by the man and attempted to detain him until police arrived. However, police detained Zatoka instead of the man.

His supporters in Moscow held a protest in front of the Turkmen Embassy on October 27 and again on October 29, demanding his immediate release.

They said they consider Zatoka's case to be politically motivated and connected to his professional activities.

Zatoka, a biologist, has run an environmental-protection group shut down by the government in 2003.

The co-founder of the group, Farid Tukhbatullin, now lives in exile in Europe and monitors human rights abuses in Turkmenistan.

Zatoka was also detained in December 2006 and charged with possessing and dealing with in arms and dangerous substances, which Human Rights Watch said were trumped-up charges.

In January 2007, he was finally released under pressure from the international community when a court granted him a conditional release upon his pledge not to leave the country for three years.

His wife has been living in Russia since that time.

The international Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has called on the country's judiciary to release blogger Hossein Derakhshan, who was arrested a year ago.

Derakhshan is known as "the blogfather" of Iran for introducing a guide that helped popularize blogging in Iran.

Derakhshan, who reportedly holds dual Iranian-Canadian citizenship, was arrested in 2008 just a few weeks following his return to Iran after living in Canada and other countries for eight years.

His brother, Hamed Derakhshan, told RFE/RL Radio Farda’s Nima Tamadon that the family is not aware of the charges against Derakhshan. He said no trial has been held for Derakhshan. He said they have been able to meet with him only twice since his arrest.

Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human rights in Iran, has called Derakhshan's case an example of the lack of respect that the country’s judiciary has for Iranian laws.

Some suggested that Derakhshan had cooperated with judiciary officials in the cases of those arrested in the postelection crackdown. The indictments of reformists and others put on trial over the postelection unrest include references to information provided by “a jailed spy who worked with Israel.” Some believe that is a reference to Derakhshan because of a 2006 trip to Israel.

But Derakhshan’s brother told Radio Farda that he believes the information allegedly used against the reformists may have been taken from Derakhshan’s blog entries, which he had posted before his arrest.

An Iran-based rights group, Human Rights Activists in Iran, reported recently that Derakhshan was held for several months in solitary confinement and that he has been under pressure to confess to the charges brought against him by his interrogators.

(by Golnaz Esfandiari)