On October 13, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International issued a statement expressing their concern regarding a potentially life-threatening plot against Farid Tukhbatullin, a World Movement participant who leads the Vienna-based NGO Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights to advocate for human rights in Turkmenistan. HRW and Amnesty International report that, according to a reliable source, the Ministry of National Security of Turkmenistan has discussed ways to assassinate Tukhbatullin in Vienna. In the last week, Tukhbatullin’s Web site has been hacked and has received two warnings that his life is in danger. Tukhbatullin believes that his interview, broadcast on the satellite TV channel K+ on September 28-29, may have prompted the threat. In the interview, he discussed the human rights situation in Turkmenistan.

 

Tukhbatullin has been actively advocating for environmental and human rights since 1993. In his home country of Turkmenistan in 2002, he was arrested and then imprisoned for his peaceful activities as a human rights defender. As a result of international pressure, he was released in April 2003. Immediately after his release, he left the country and that November received refugee status in Austria.

 

This is not the first time that an exiled activist has been threatened in Austria. In 2006, Umar Israilov fled Russia and filed a complaint against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights that detailed his claims of the systematic use of abductions and torture by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Israilov remained in Vienna in exile, and in 2009, he was gunned down in the middle of the day. According to the New York Times, shortly before his murder, Israilov had requested the Austrian authorities for protection, but his request was denied.

 

For more information from HRW on the threats made against Tukhbatullin, go to: www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/13/turkmenistan-activist-serious-risk-harm

 

For more information from the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights on the threats made against Tukhbatullin, go to: www.chrono-tm.org/en/?id=1484