Turkmenistan: Convicted activist is not receiving medical assistance
The state of health of prisoner Dr. Khursanai Ismatullayeva, who was sentenced to 9 years in prison on trumped-up charges, has deteriorated sharply. This was reported to ACCA by sources in the Department for the Execution of Punishments under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan.
ACCA was able to learn that Khursanai has a high fever, severe cough, weakness and weight loss. No one is allowed near her. Doctors are forbidden to provide her with any assistance, and she was even refused to undergo an x-ray of her lungs. Khursanai is under constant surveillance, and she even goes to the toilet with a guard so that she cannot ask for a phone and transmit any information via the Internet.
From the moment of her abduction from the house by special services and to this day, Khursanai has not had a single visit.
Dr. Khursanai Ismatullayeva was abducted from her house after her story was mentioned at the conference “Suppression practices in Central Asia: Voices of human rights defenders” on July 15, 2021. She was abducted from her house and taken away in an unknown direction by employees of the Ministry of National Security and the police. She was placed in the pre-trial detention center of Zhitnikovo, and already on September 7, 2021, she was sentenced to 9 years in prison, with a term to be served in the women’s colony DZ-K / 8 in the city of Dashoguz.
Ismatullayeva was found guilty of fraud, forgery of documents and ill-treatment of a person in a dependent position.
In 2017, Ismatullayeva was fired from the perinatal center due to her unwillingness to prescribe unnecessary paid examinations and operations to patients. She considered that she was fired illegally and struggled with this for a long time, including by recording a video message to the President of the country.
