ASHGABAT (TCA) — The acts of pardon will not be applied to those convicted for crimes related to corruption and illicit drug trafficking in Turkmenistan. Relevant amendments to the country’s Criminal Code came into force on 13 December 2019, Chronicles of Turkmenistan news website reported.
Pursuant to the amendments published in the state newspaper Neitralny Turkmenistan, “the acts of pardon and amnesty will not be applied to convicts sentenced for crimes related to corruption, illicit drug trafficking, psychotropic substances and precursors”.
It remains unknown whether the amendments apply to those who are already serving a prison sentence and whether they will be applied to former Interior Minister Isgender Mulikov, the trail against whom was held on 29 November, two weeks before the amendments were adopted. According to sources of Chronicles of Turkmenistan, Mulikov, as well as former Chairperson of Turkmenistan’s Migration Office Meylis Nobatov, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of corruption.
According to Chairperson of the Independent Lawyer’s Association of Turkmenistan Timur Misrikhanov, the new rules should not be applied to those who had committed crimes before its adoption.
In 2019, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov pardoned a total of 4,188 convicts.
Such acts of clemency usually do not cover political prisoners.
