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