The news outlet Turkmen News reports that pursuant to a ruling of the Bagtiyarlyk district court of Ashgabat, a 26 year resident of Ashgabat Nurgeldi Khalykov was sentenced to a four year imprisonment term.
Khalykov was officially convicted for fraud but journalists are convinced that the real reason behind the conviction is sending a photo of WHO experts to the editorial office of the news outlet.
WHO experts paid a visit to Turkmenistan from 6 to 15 July to check readiness of Turkmen medical institutions and the country on the whole in case of coronavirus outbreak.
The photo had been taken at the pool of Ashgabat hotel “Yildyz” by a girl, who used to be the convict’s classmate. She posted the photo in Instagram, where Nurgeldy saw it and forwarded to the new outlet Turkmen News.
“The next day, on 13 July, 2020, Khalykov’s acquaintance deleted him from her friends’ list and enquired whether he had disseminated the photo featuring WHO officials.
A few hours later, approximately at 5 p.m., the young man was summoned to the police and then the editorial office lost contact with him”, – the news outlet says.
Police officers managed to identify from CCTV footage who had taken the photo.The girl and her six friends had been relaxing by the pool where members of the WHO delegation had been having a discussion.
At the police station law enforcement officers reviewed the content of her mobile phone, including photos, correspondence with other people and saved contacts.Following this, Nurgeldy was summoned to the police.
Khalykov’s family refused to answer journalists’ questions because they had been promised that he would be released 10 to 15 days after the arrest. However, he has not returned home.
On 26 July Khalykov contacted the editorial office and said that his criminal case was allegedly related to non-payment of the debt because he had borrowed 5 thousand dollars at the start of the year.
“The editorial office of “Turkmen News” had not been aware of the debt and a creditor claiming it. We have all reasons to believe that he would have informed us. However, we failed to get any comment from Nurgeldy because he is not accessible”, the news outlet reports.
Meanwhile, Radio “Azatlyk” reports that police officers of Lebap velayat are interrogating locals who have accessed websites and web resources of political opposition and activists.
A resident of Farap etrap told correspondents of the Radio that he had been summoned for interrogation by the NSM officers who enquired why he was watching videos criticizing the authorities and President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov on Youtube via VPN (direct access to the website is blocked in Turkmenistan).
After an 8 hour interrogation he was released after signing an acknowledgement that he will no longer be using VPN application and will refrain from watching such videos.The post Turkmen News: Man Sentenced to a Four-Year Imprisonment Term for Reposting Photo of WHO Delegation first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.