The Turkmen activist Dursoltan Taganova was released from the deportation centre in Istanbul on 12 October, 2020 after spending 85 days in custody.
On the same evening, according to the Memorial Human Rights Center and the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Dursoltan’s brother, 27 year old Babajan Taganov, was summoned to a municipal police department of the city of Turkmenabad, where his telephone was confiscated and he was informed that his sister had been put on the wanted list as a “impostor” and that she would be arrested if she appeared in Turkmenistan.
No details of the case were disclosed to him.The case was allegedly initiated by the National Security Ministry.
While in custody, Dursoltan had submitted a request for political asylum in Turkey. The relevant document was granted to her by the Turkish Migration Office on 22 October.
According to Dursoltan, the head of the deportation centre, had tried a few times to convince her to withdraw her application and promised not to send her back home.
After Dursoltan’s release at the meeting with human rights defenders her mother Merjemgul Baimuradova said that since her daughter had been openly criticizing the political regime in Turkmenistan on the Internet, her family members in Turkmenistan had become targets of persecution.
In late June, an official of the registration office Jumamurad Baltayev visited the activist’s relatives to enquire about her whereabouts, asked for her telephone number and warned them that family members might face problems.
Following Taganova’s detention in July, 2020 two sisters of her mother were interrogated by police officers, who obtained personal details of Merjemgul Taganova’s former husband Yusupbai and her son Babajan. Two NSM officers in civilian clothes visited the men residing in the village of Agalan, Serdarabat etrap.
For two consecutive days law enforcement officers forcibly brought Babajan (Dursoltan’s brother) to the police department of Serdarabat etrap, where he was beaten for the involvement of his sister and mother (Merjemgul) in a protest movement.
On 15 August, 2020, under unclear circumstances Babajan sustained a knife wound, after which he was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. It is reported that Babajan’s 14 year old brother was with him. Before that police officers had tried to establish their whereabouts from acquaintances and criminal charges were subsequently dropped.
At the same time, in late July, a police officer and an individual in civilian clothes visited Ramazan Artykov, Dursoltan’s ex husband who lives in Turkmenabat together with their 9 year old son. Artykov was asked when Taganova left Turkmenistan and what she was doing in Turkey.
On 8 October, 2020 a police officer and a person in civilian clothes detained Merjemgul’s sister and two brothers and took them to the police department in the village of Agalan.
They were released later that day.On the same evening the police detained the spouse of one of the brothers, who later recorded a video condemning Dursoltan and her mother and called on them to stop their opposition activities on the Internet and to apologize to the authorities.
In the police department law enforcement officers checked the telephones of the girl’s relatives, who had been interrogated, for any suspicious videos or contacts with opposition members.
The next day Taganova’s brother, Babajan, was taken to the police for interrogation.
Babajan was again summoned for interrogation on 12 October, 2020, after Taganova’s release.He was informed that his sister is included in the list of “betrayer of the nation” and was declared “wanted” in the CIS countries.
He was detained in the police department until the morning but was reluctant to share the details out of fear that he might be beaten again.