Journalist seized in Turkmenistan ahead of Swiss award ceremony, say rights groups

By Emma Farge

A journalist was seized by security forces in Turkmenistan as she was due to travel to Switzerland for an international human rights award ceremony, a group of NGOs said on Thursday, calling for her immediate release.

Turkmenistan's diplomatic mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Authorities in Turkmenistan could not immediately be reached.

Soltan Achilova, a journalist and photographer, was set to be presented with a Martin Ennals Award, a high-profile human rights award at a ceremony in Geneva this week.

Achilova was awarded the prize in 2021 but could not claim it as the ceremony was held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But on Nov. 20 ahead of her scheduled departure, security forces pushed her and two family members into an ambulance and took her to a hospital for infectious diseases where she is being held under guard, the group of 11 NGOs including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

"(We) once again condemn Turkmen authorities for their continued harassment of woman human rights defender and photojournalist Soltan Achilova and her family members and call for their immediate release," the statement said.

"We are very worried for her life," Manon Karatas, director of the Martin Ennals Foundation, which is one of the statement's signatories, told Reuters. She added that Achilova is diabetic.

Last year, during an initial attempt to travel to Switzerland to claim the prize, she was blocked at the airport in Turkmenistan by officials who alleged her passport was not valid, Karatas said.

The Martin Ennals award, named for a former secretary-general of Amnesty International, has been awarded annually since 1994 based on a jury of 10 global rights groups.

This year's prize went to an Afghan activist Zholia Parsi and Manuchehr Kholiknazarov from Tajikistan, a lawyer currently being detained. Past recipients include jailed Chinese lawyer Yu Wensheng.