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Baptist prisoner Shageldy Atakov is reported to be in such poor physical condition in the wake of repeated beatings, a spell in the labor camp sick-bay in December with early signs of a heart attack, then a spell in the internal camp prison in January, that he is preparing for death. The German-based Friedensstimme Mission, citing Baptist sources in Turkmenistan, told Keston News Service on February 3 that the amnesty commission that recently visited the labor camp told the authorities "to break him morally or destroy him physically."

Local Baptists believe the authorities of the camp in the town of Seydy in northeastern Turkmenistan where he is being held are now carrying this out. "They have decided to finish him off."

On February 3 and 4 Atakov was allowed a visit from his wife Artygul. During the visit he was reportedly bruised and battered, his kidneys and liver hurt, and he was suffering from jaundice. He could barely walk and frequently lost consciousness.

"He does not expect to live," Friedensstimme reported. "He said, 'Farewell.'"

Atakov had earlier been reported as recovering well from the early symptoms of a heart attack he suffered in December. It is not known why he was sent to the camp prison (known in Russian as a SHIZO) in January.

Friedensstimme reported that the amnesty commission had offered that if he swore the oath of allegiance to the president he would be freed under the amnesty declared by President Saparmurat Niyazov in December "If not, they would destroy him," local Baptists told Friedensstimme.

The mission in Ashgabad of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (of which Turkmenistan is a member) told Keston that it has been following Atakov's case with concern. "Over the past year every high-level visitor we've had has mentioned his name as one of a number of cases with the Turkmen authorities and our head of office Ambassador Istvan Venczel has taken up his case," Bess Brown told Keston from Ashgabad on February 5. "Since the freeing of [political prisoners] Nurberdi Nurmamedov and Pirimguly Tangryguliyev in the December amnesty, the OSCE has continued to express concern about Atakov and is urging the Turkmen authorities to free him."

The 38-year-old Atakov, who is married with five children, is serving a four year sentence on charges of swindling which church members insist were instigated to obstruct his activity with the church. Atakov was originally arrested on December 18, 1998, in the Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and fined on March 19, 1999, but was retried on August 4, 1999, and given an increased sentence.

Atakov belongs to a Baptist congregation affiliated with the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, a group founded in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and which refuses to register in any of the post-Soviet republics where it operates. Its congregations in Turkmenistan have been subjected to particular persecution.

Police have also recently raided another Bible study being held by a Protestant church in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabad hoping to crush remaining Protestant activity in the Central Asian state.

The Bible study organized by the Word of Life church was raided in the evening of January 31 and the 25 people attending were taken to the police station, where they were interrogated. Reports say one of the Protestants was beaten by the police. All were said to have been freed the same evening. There is no information on whether any of them were fined.

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February (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45