Turkmenistan: Environmental defender freed
Posted: February 28, 2007
Environmental activist Andrei Zatoka was released January 31. © Private
“We won! Andrei is free!” - Yevgenia Zatoka (wife of environmental activist Andrei Zatoka)
Environmental activist Andrei Zatoka was released from jail on January 31, 2007. He had been detained on December 17 by local police at the airport in his home town of Dashoguz.
He had been preparing to fly to the capital, Ashgabat, and then on to Moscow the following day to meet with members of the International Social and Ecological Union, an umbrella organization of over 340 environmental groups, mainly from the countries of the former Soviet Union. He was allegedly targeted to punish him for his peaceful work as an environmental activist.
After he was arrested he managed to send a cellphone text message informing his colleagues that he was "in trouble" and needed help.
It was feared that he was at risk of torture or other ill-treatment, and on January 5, Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action appeal on his behalf. Andrei Zatoka and his supporters have since expressed thanks for the messages that Amnesty members sent to the authorities.
Farid Tukhbatullin, the director of the human rights group Turkmenistan Initiative for Human Rights, who worked with Andrei Zatoka for many years in the Dashoguz Ecological Club, told Amnesty: “We are grateful to all who took part in the campaign for Andrei's defence, all who were sympathetic and helped.”