(RSF/IFEX) – Mukhamed Berdiyev, Moscow correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Turkmen service, was beaten up by thugs at his home on 30 April 2004. The journalist lay badly injured in his apartment for three days without being able to call for help. He suffered injuries to his head, eyes and ribs. “As several […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Mukhamed Berdiyev, Moscow correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Turkmen service, was beaten up by thugs at his home on 30 April 2004. The journalist lay badly injured in his apartment for three days without being able to call for help. He suffered injuries to his head, eyes and ribs.
“As several recent cases have demonstrated, the simple fact of working for RFE/RL’s Turkmen service is a sufficient reason for harassment by the Turkmen authorities. We believe the Turkmen security services could be behind this attack on Berdiyev and we urge you to open an investigation to find those responsible and punish them in an exemplary fashion,” RSF said in a letter to Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov.
Three men turned up at Berdiyev’s Moscow apartment on the evening of 30 April. They beat the journalist until he lost consciousness, destroyed his computer and damaged the telephone and electricity services in his home.
The same day, an unknown Turkmen national had contacted Berdiyev, saying he had some documents to give him. The previous evening, the journalist’s son, Chanazar Berdiyev, who is also an RFE/RL correspondent, had his home searched. In the days preceding the attack, Mukhamed Berdiyev was working on a report about Turkmen citizens who had recently fled the country. He was previously attacked in July 2003.
RSF notes that Rakhim Esenov and Ashyrguly Bayryev, writers and journalists for RFE/RL, were arrested by Turkmenistan National Security Ministry agents in Ashgabat on 26 February and 1 March 2004, respectively (see IFEX alerts of 25, 8 and 3 March 2004). Before releasing them, the authorities warned them to stop working for the radio station.
