TURKMENISTAN: FAMILY OF IMPRISONED VALERI PAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 001395 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN; DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/22/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: FAMILY OF IMPRISONED VALERI PAL ALARMED BY HIS DECLINING HEALTH Classified By: Charge Sylvia Reed Curran for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Post confirmed reports that Valeri Pal's health is in serious decline in a prison near Mary. Mrs. Pal shared documentation related to the case against her husband, which raises curious questions about its investigation and prosecution. Provincial judicial authorities may have put his name on list of those who were amnestied in September, but Mrs. Pal claimed that someone in the central government removed it before the final list was published. Meanwhile, Pal's health has substantially degraded, and the family fears he is not getting adequate medical treatment. There are many details of this case that simply do not add up. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Poloff met October 21 with Alevtina Pal, the wife of Valeri Pal, to learn more details about his case and his current status. Pal was arrested in February, spent three months in detention, and was tried on May 14 in Turkmenbashy. He was accused of stealing office equipment and supplies valued at 2.8 billion manats, exceeding his authority in his position at the refinery, and forgery. The trial ended the same day, and the judge sentenced Pal to 12 years of imprisonment in a strict regime prison. ¶3. (C) Mrs. Pal was seeking assistance in appealing his continued incarceration, given the decline in his health in recent months. She believes he may have had a heart attack in late September, because the day she came to the prison for a visit, prison officials would not let her see him. She was not able to see him until almost two weeks later, when she discovered he had difficulty speaking, seemed confused and had generally lost control of his bodily functions. Prior to this, he had already been suffering from severe prostatitis and partial paralysis from the earlier stroke. ¶4. (C) Although Pal was initially incarcerated in a prison near Turkmenbashy, he was moved on June 22 to the Bayramaly Prison near Mary. On July 13, he was moved to the Bayramaly Prison Hospital, and has remained there ever since. Mrs. Pal is permitted to visit him once every two months, but she said that he is not receiving adequate medical care. ¶5. (C) In September, she said officials at the Balkan procurator's office and personnel at the prison where Pal has been held since June had told her family that Pal's name was to have been recommended for the early October prison amnesty. The family had hoped for this, given that Pal was in very poor health, this was his first offense, and they had fully repaid the 2.8 billion manats in punitive damages to the refinery within five days, in accordance with the court's instruction. ¶6. (C) The family became optimistic that Pal would be on the amnesty list in honor of the late September Night of Omnipotence holiday. Because the family had previously appealed to the presidential commission that reviews citizen complaints of law enforcement activities in April, before Pal's trial took place, they re-contacted a commission representative to try to verify that Pal's name would be on the list. The commission representative expressed confidence that Pal's name would be listed, but admitted the commission had not seen the amnesty list itself. When the list was published at the end of September, Pal's name was not on the list. Mrs. Pal said the family could not determine who removed him from the list, but believed it was someone in Ashgabat rather than in Balkan. ¶7. (C) Mrs. Pal could not speculate as to what specific event or activity set off Valeri's arrest and prosecution. And she did not provide proof that it was due to any anti-government or human rights-related activity. He had been active in the Russian community of Turkmenbashy for many years. He was an information technology expert, having spent three years in St. Petersburg studying information management ASHGABAT 00001395 002 OF 002 systems in the late 1980s. Outside of his work at the refinery, he had assisted private individuals, small businesses, and even local government entities like the MNB and the port authority in setting up computer networks, and was considered to be the most capable computer expert in Turkmenbashy. ¶8. (C) Mrs. Pal shared a variety of documents related to her husband's case, and preliminary review of these documents revealed some curiosities about the case. A Balkan city court document, for example, states that Pal's May 13 trial took place at the Turkmenbashy oil refinery, rather than in the courtroom, but it does not explain why. There is also a statement, signed by the refinery's director and two other senior officials, that outlines Pal's work performance and history at the refinery, and is dated the day of his arrest. In the document, the director indicates that Pal's performance had been exemplary, that there had never been any complaints about his work, and that he had always controlled equipment and supplies appropriately and in accordance with refinery procedures. ¶9. (C) Another curious finding is that there is no information in the documentation that indicates who or what entity specifically brought charges against Pal. The director's aforementioned statement on Pal's performance suggests that no one at the refinery did, and only the Balkan procurator's office is mentioned in other documents. ¶10. (C) Pal had been an invaluable asset of the refinery, and a longtime employee, according to Mrs. Pal and the documentation. Early in his career, the refinery sponsored his studies at the Gubkin Oil and Gas Institute, where he earned his diploma. Later he was sent for three years of information management systems study in Russia. Afterward, Pal returned and undertook the complete computerized automation of the aging refinery's production controls. He oversaw the purchase of the needed equipment and its installment, and acquired the software to run it all. Once the refinery's production systems had been converted, he turned his attention to creating computer networks for the refinery's various administrative sections. ¶11. (C) COMMENT: On the face of it, the case appears to be a typical one in which neither law enforcement nor the judiciary functioned the way it should. This is certainly not uncommon for Turkmenistan. We are left with many questions regarding this case. If the refinery administration initiated the investigation of Pal, why did it also issue a glowing recommendation letter of Mr. Pal on the day of his arrest? If the refinery administration did not initiate the investigation, who did? And why did Mr. Pal's court case take place in the refinery's conference room? Finally, if provincial judicial authorities recommended him for pardon, why did someone in the central government prevent it? Post will continue to gather information about this case and will report further. END COMMENT. CURRAN