Turkmenistan: Former trade minister jailed on corruption charges

ASHGABAT (TCA) — Turkmenistan’s Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, Amandurdy Ishanov, has been sentenced to an unspecified prison term on corruption charges just days after being sacked from his post, RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service reported.

The strictly controlled energy-rich Central Asian nation’s state-TV channels showed several handcuffed men, including Ishanov, who publicly confessed to various corruption-linked unrelated crimes on September 13.

The video was shown on several large monitors during a cabinet session, at which Prosecutor-General Batyr Atdaev reported the results of an anti-corruption campaign launched by the country’s authoritarian leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.

Ishanov said he committed various corruption-related crimes in recent years along with a well-known businessman Charymukhammed Kulov and leaders of several state-owned industrial facilities.

Although it was announced that Ishanov and other men in the video had been sentenced to prison terms, no information was given with regard to when trials were held or details of their sentences.

Several people in Turkmenistan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the “public confessions” looked like a performance staged by the authorities “to prove” their fight against corruption.

Turkmenistan’s tightly controlled economy has been struggling in recent months and the government has been trying to blame corruption for weaker revenues.

For months, the country has struggled with shortages of staple foods in shops due in part to unsuccessful energy deals and low global prices for natural gas, Turkmenistan’s main export.

The government has also decreased or abandoned subsidies on household needs such as water, gas, and electricity.

Government critics and human rights groups say Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the restrictive country since he came to power after the death of autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.

Sergey Kwan

TCA

Sergey Kwan has worked for The Times of Central Asia as a journalist, translator and editor since its foundation in March 1999. Prior to this, from 1996-1997, he worked as a translator at The Kyrgyzstan Chronicle, and from 1997-1999, as a translator at The Central Asian Post.
divider
Kwan studied at the Bishkek Polytechnic Institute from 1990-1994, before completing his training in print journalism in Denmark.

View more articles fromTCA