VZCZCXRO5412
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHNEH RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #1472/01 3120910
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 070910Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1826
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 4477
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 2289
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 2154
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 2725
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0925
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE PRIORITY 3043
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 001472 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN; DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: COUPLE TORTURED DURING NIYAZOV ERA 
SEEKING JUSTICE AND MEDICAL HELP 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY:  On October 22, poloff met with 
entrepreneur Bazargeldy Berdiyev and his wife, Ayjemal, who 
asked for help in obtaining medical care for severe injuries 
Ayjemal suffered when she was detained and tortured by 
government authorities in 1998.  Although both Bazargeldy and 
his wife were detained and tortured, Ayjemal's injuries have 
made her an invalid.  The couple also asked for help in 
forwarding the details of their human rights complaint to 
appropriate UN offices abroad.  UN Officials confirmed that 
that they had forwarded the complaint to the Special 
Rapporteur on Violence against Women and the Special 
Rapporteur on Torture in Geneva on July 8.  UN officials said 
they were unable to fulfill the family's requests to provide 
them with money and to send Ayjemal for treatment only in 
Japan or Israel.  The Berdiyevs' focus now is to do something 
to relieve the intense physical pain that Mrs. Berdiyeva 
continues to suffer as a result of torture.  END SUMMARY. 
 
SEVERE INJURIES 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  On October 22, poloff met with entrepreneur 
Bazargeldy Berdiyev and his wife, Ayjemal, who asked for help 
in obtaining medical care for severe injuries Ayjemal 
suffered when she was detained and tortured by government 
authorities in 1998.  According to the Berdiyevs, in late 
November 1998, Ministry of National Security ("MNB") 
authorities received a "poison pen" letter from an enemy of 
the family who had lost a civil court case to the Berdiyevs. 
When the Berdiyevs, residents of Ashgabat, were visiting 
relatives in Turkmenabat, Bazargeldy was detained and accused 
of posing as an MNB official and taking bribes to procure the 
freedom of two MNB detainees.  He was detained in the 
basement of an MNB holding facility for 55 days, and 
subjected to torture in an attempt to get him to confess. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Bazargeldy said MNB officers pierced his big toe 
and tore off part of the nail with a knife, and gave him 
similar punctures along his spine and on his stomach.  He was 
also subjected to electric shock several times each day, 
until he lost consciousness.  He said they also put a rubber 
bag full of water on his head and hit him on the head with a 
truncheon while questioning him. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Five days after Bazargeldy's detention, his wife 
Ayjemal, having returned to Ashgabat, was herself detained by 
the MNB.  She said that MNB investigator Yusup Begchayev came 
to their house in Ashgabat, and after confiscating a large 
sum of money, jewelry, carpets, and the family's car, took 
Ayjemal, three months pregnant, to an MNB detention facility. 
 There, three members of the MNB's investigations department, 
including Begchayev, department head Begmurad Otuzov, and 
Lieutenant Colonel Suleyman Kurbanov interrogated her. 
Ayjemal said the goal of the interrogation was to force her 
to write a confession that would incriminate her husband. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  In the course of the interrogation, she was kicked 
and punched all over her body.  The top of her skull was 
punctured with a sharp instrument, and her left wrist was 
broken.  After she was released four days later, she 
discovered that she had lost her baby, and a cesarean or 
other abdominal surgery had had been performed.  She also 
discovered a deep gash across the tendons behind her left 
knee, sutured with 20 stitches, and another horizontal gash 
across her left Achilles tendon.  Part of the bone that 
normally extends from the ankle is missing, and a dark scar 
is in its place.  She believes they may also have drugged 
her, which may explain her memory loss. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Medical notations from later treatment and her 
comments suggest that the tendons behind her knee and her 
Achilles tendon were at least partially cut and improperly 
repaired.  She said her leg has developed some kind of 
abscess caused by either the injury or its improper medical 
 
ASHGABAT 00001472  002 OF 003 
 
 
treatment, and she is afraid she will lose the leg if it is 
not properly treated soon.  Her reproductive system was badly 
damaged, and she can no longer conceive children.  She said 
that although she has been examined by doctors here, they are 
unwilling to do more than assess her injuries, (due in part 
to the fact that the injuries were received while in MNB 
detention) and have indicated that the care she needs can 
only be obtained abroad.  Berdiyeva, who is 44 years old, 
currently walks with a cane and appears to be in constant 
pain, due to her severe leg and internal injuries. 
 
THE ACCUSATION 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Bazargeldy said that until 1998, he had been part 
of a construction cooperative that had been very successful. 
He had been managing renovation jobs for both private and 
government customers.  They owned two houses in Ashgabat that 
they were renovating, as well as an apartment.  They had 
never run afoul of the law until 1993, when a local official 
with ties to senior MNB leadership moved a woman into the 
Berdiyevs' house.  The Berdiyevs, having failed in an attempt 
to evict her themselves, took the matter to civil court in 
¶1994.  They won the case, but local officials did not carry 
out the eviction until late 1998.  The man who had placed the 
woman in the house was Gurbanguly Saparov, a sometime 
university professor who apparently had ties to then MNB 
chief M. Nazarov.  The Berdiyevs believe that Saparov made 
the "poison pen" claim to the MNB to avenge the eviction. 
(COMMENT:  The woman was likely his mistress.  END COMMENT.) 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The Berdiyevs claim that Bazargeldy was finally 
freed, because they reached out to their own family's 
government contacts.  Through these contacts, they managed to 
convince someone high in the government to get a presidential 
decree issued for Bazargeldy's release on December 12.  The 
Berdiyevs claim that although MNB personnel received the 
decree to release him, they ignored the decree until later in 
January.  Bazargeldy Berdiyev was instead placed on the 
pardon list -- having never been charged with a crime -- 
during former President Niyazov's first holiday prison 
release on January 19, 1999.  The fact of his 1999 pardon 
then became documentary proof of his criminal guilt. 
 
TAKING IT TO COURT 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  Bazargeldy was never able to rejoin his contractor 
cooperative, and the family's valuables, seized before 
Ayjemal's detention, were never returned, although neither 
Berdiyev was ever charged with a crime.  They learned later 
that their car ended up in the possession of former MNB chief 
Nazarov's son, and have a document to prove it.  The 
Berdiyevs provided hundreds of pages of official 
documentation in Russian and in Turkmen that demonstrates 
their efforts to sue the mid-level MNB officials who tortured 
Ayjemal and to get the family's assets back from the state. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Over the past ten years, the Berdiyevs have taken 
their case to the Lebap provincial procurator's office, the 
Procurator General's Office, the Supreme Court, a judicial 
investigation office within the Mejlis, the Institute of 
Democracy and Human Rights, the commission on citizen 
complaints against law enforcement entities, and various 
offices of the MNB.  Some offices said it was outside of 
their mandate to respond.  Those who did respond said the 
MNB's case against Berdiyev was soundly based, but each gave 
different reasons for their decisions and cited facts about 
the case that differed from original documents.  A review of 
the documents suggests that the various judicial agencies 
simply sought to close the case.  Ayjemal met with the 
Ashgabat OSCE Centre in 1999, but did not seek legal 
assistance from it. 
 
¶11. (SBU) More recently, the Berdiyevs  successfully filed a 
 
ASHGABAT 00001472  003 OF 003 
 
 
human rights complaint with the UN OHCHR in Kyrgyzstan in 
June 2008.  OHCHR forwarded the complaint to the Special 
Rapporteur on Violence against Women and the Special 
Rapporteur on Torture in Geneva on July 8.  The couple also 
requested that the UN assist them in arranging treatment for 
her wounds.  They specifically wanted to be sent to Israel or 
Japan for treatment.  In addition, they requested that the UN 
give them cash.  This is not typically allowed by the UN, and 
ONHCR staff offered to send the couple to Nizhniy Novgorod, 
Russia for treatment.  The couple refused, claiming that it 
would not be safe for them and that they might be targeted by 
the authorities.  They again reiterated their desire to go to 
Japan or Israel, but the UN stated that this option was not 
feasible.  That was the last time the UN saw the couple. 
They are not sure why the couple returned to Turkmenistan. 
The Berdiyevs told the Embassy that they are still seeking 
help in obtaining medical treatment abroad, and also want the 
facts of their case to be shared with international human 
rights organizations. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  COMMENT:  The Berdiyevs appear to understand that 
their assets will never be returned, nor will their 
grievances against government representatives be addressed 
anytime soon, even though the relevant agencies are under 
different leadership now.  Their primary goal now is to 
obtain much-needed medical care abroad for Mrs. Berdiyeva, 
although we believe they perhaps should be more flexible 
about where they receive treatment.  An Embassy employee, who 
previously had been denied exit by the government, was able 
to receive medical treatment in Russia, without problem.  In 
any case, Israel and Japan are not the only places where 
suitable medical treatment is possible.  Post can send photos 
and other documentation of interest to DRL.  END COMMENT. 
CURRAN