Turkmen Prosecutor’s Office Claims Baloch Detainee’s Fatal Wounds Were Self-Inflicted

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Turkmenistan has stated that ethnic Baloch Allamurat Hudayramov, who died in police custody in Mary region as a result of torture, might have inflicted his fatal wounds himself under the influence of the medication tramadol. Turkmen.news has a copy of the reply, signed by Deputy Prosecutor General Rahim Atayev, to the complaint of the Hudayramov family. Following an investigation the prosecutor’s office refused to open a criminal case into the death.

The reply, sent on January 9, 2024 says that the department conducted an investigation into the incident.

“During the investigation the wounds on Allamurat Hudayramov’s body were subject to medical examination. The conclusion shows that the wounds were in places that the deceased could have reached with his own hands; taking into account the mechanics of their creation the possibility cannot be ruled out that the injuries were self-inflicted,” the Prosecutor General’s Office report says.

The prosecutor’s office claims that Allamurat Hudayramov was suspected of giving four of his fellow villagers 535 tablets of tramadol to sell. As a result of the work of the police in Mary Region’s Vekilbazar district, a criminal case was opened against all of them, while Allamurat Hudayramov was put on the wanted list. On November 27, 2023 he was reportedly arrested and died in detention center MR-Е/14 of the Mary region police department.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the direct cause of death was “swelling on the brain caused by the toxic impact of the medication ‘tramadol’, which led to herniation through the opening at the base of the skull.”

The department reported that as a result of the inspection conducted on December 28, 2023, the Mary region prosecutor’s office refused to open a criminal case into the death of the accused Allamurat Hudayramov on the basis of Article 31, chapter 1, part 2 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Turkmenistan (“for lack of evidence that a crime has been committed”).

Turkmen.news is convinced that Allamurat Hudayramov was killed by law-enforcement employees! It is impossible for this kind of wound to the soles of the feet, the backs of the thighs, the back, and the buttocks to be self-inflicted. The body of the deceased bears marks from a soldering iron, handcuffs, and blows from a truncheon. If Hudayramov tortured himself, where did he get the instruments inside the police department? Did he torture himself while the police stood by and watched? Where were they when it happened? Why didn’t they stop him flagellating himself? There are more photographs on our Telegram channel.

This explanation is a fabrication, needless to say. This is a case of real torture, with the Prosecutor’s Office covering up the sadists in the police. In mid-January turkmen.news submitted a complaint about this case to the UN Committee Against Torture. As the guarantor of the Constitution, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov should conduct an objective investigation into the murder of Allamurat Hudayramov.

Turkmen.news obtained a video showing Hudayramov’s body on December 20. It was reported that he had been suspected of drug trafficking. It was also said that Hudayramov did not hide from anyone, and went of his own free will to the police station to prove his innocence. Three days later his tortured body was returned to his relatives, while law-enforcement apologized and offered the family money to keep quiet.

The family did not agree to keep quiet and this led to the inspection by the Prosecutor General’s Office. However, all that the inspection brought them is the insulting conclusion that his injuries were self-inflicted.

There is an ethnic angle here that should not be overlooked. The Balochis are a Persian-speaking ethnic minority. Turkmen law-enforcement agencies tend to think that their links with Iranians and Afghans automatically make every Baloch a drug trafficker. No evidence of involvement in drug trafficking is needed — ethnicity alone is enough for law-enforcement to consider the accused guilty without investigation or trial. Mansur Mingelov, for example, who defends the rights of Balochis, is serving a 22-year sentence on a “drugs” charge.

And even if Hudayramov were guilty of a crime — this would be no reason to beat him to death. After all, the law exists in Turkmenistan and it does not include execution as a type of punishment. According to the law, imprisonment is the only punishment for an actual drug trafficker. In this case, though, sadists in the Mary region police department submitted their victim to summary execution.