Soltan Achilova, a veteran journalist and former RFE/RL correspondent in Turkmenistan, was forcibly hospitalized in Ashgabat on November 20 in what appears to be a move by the government to prevent her from flying to Geneva to receive an international award, RFE/RL’s Current Time reported.
According to the Chronicle of Turkmenistan website, four men in medical gowns arrived at the 75-year-old’s apartment early that morning, claiming she was suspected of carrying an infectious disease and needed an “urgent” examination.
Achilova, who showed no signs of illness, was forcibly taken to the Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases in Ashgabat’s Choganly district.
Her family was not allowed to accompany her and her apartment keys were confiscated. One family member said one of the men told Achilova, “Why do you need keys in the afterlife?”
Turkmenistan is consistently ranked by media watchdogs, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), among the worst countries in the world for press freedom.
Independent media are nonexistent in the authoritarian Central Asian state, where journalism “amounts only to praise for the regime,” according to RSF.
Human rights groups, including the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights and the International Partnership for Human Rights, immediately condemned Achilova’s forced detention, calling it a stark escalation in Turkmenistan’s crackdown on free speech.
They demanded her immediate release and an end to the persecution of journalists.
Achilova, the only journalist in Turkmenistan who openly criticizes the authoritarian government, has faced repeated harassment, threats, and attacks.
In November 2023, border guards at the Ashgabat airport destroyed her passport to prevent her from traveling to Switzerland, where she was scheduled to attend the Martin Ennals Award human rights ceremony.
Achilova has faced verbal threats and physical attacks, which the journalist and her supporters describe as government retaliation for her work. Many of her relatives have also been threatened.
Ashgabat doesn’t tolerate any dissent, and the government has stifled independent media, forced opposition activists into exile, and blocked access to all major social media and messaging apps to virtually cut its citizens off from the rest of the world.
