TURKMENISTAN: MOTHER OF FORMER AMERICAS DESK

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 000994 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: MOTHER OF FORMER AMERICAS DESK OFFICER CHARGED IN 2005 SPY CASE APPROACHES EMBASSY FOR HELP Classified By: Charge Sylvia Reed Curran for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The Embassy was recently approached by a woman claiming to be the mother of a former MFA Americas desk officer who was arrested by Turkmen authorities in 2005 for engaging in espionage on behalf of Russia. The woman requested assistance in passing a letter, in which her son claimed to be innocen, to government officials. The Embassy referred her to the legal assistance office at the OSCE Center. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) On July 28, a woman contacted post, claiming to be the mother of an MFA Americas desk officer who was arrested by Turkmen authorities in February 2005 for engaging in espionage on behalf of Russia (which, presumably, would have included revealing information about U.S.-Turkmenistan relations). Amangul Atalikova delivered a copy of a November 2007 letter that she believed her son, Danagatar Atalikov, had written while imprisoned in a strict regime prison near Turkmenbashy. She claimed to have found the letter, wrapped in cloth, in the yard of her home recently. Atalikova asked for post's assistance in raising her son's case with Turkmenistan government officials as a human rights case, and said she came to the U.S. embassy because her son had been a counterpart for post personnel at the time of his arrest. She indicated that she had already requested a review of her son's case through the Commission on Citizen Appeals of Law Enforcement Activities, but was not satisfied with its negative response. The Embassy referred her to the legal assistance office at the OSCE Center. ¶3. (C) Atalikova said her son was tried and found guilty in March 2005 of treason, abuse of office and receiving a bribe, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was one of three individuals implicated in the high-profile espionage case that year. State authorities alleged that he passed classified materials from the Americas desk to RIA Novosti correspondent Viktor Panov, as well as to other foreign entities. A third accomplice, MNB Captain Dmitry Chernobay, was also charged in the case. Panov was eventually deported to Russia, but Atalikov and Chernobay were jailed and have spent the past three years in prison. ¶4. (C) Atalikov's letter was addressed to President Berdimuhamedov, and in it he claimed he was innocent. He denied ever having had access to classified information while working on the Americas desk and claimed that authorities forced a confession from him prior to his court trial. He claimed that even Foreign Minister Meredov knew that he did not have access to sensitive information. He wrote that he had been denied the ability to appeal his case, and was serving his prison sentence in a strict regime prison colony identified as BL/K-6 near the village of Ak Dash, near Turkmenbashy. Atalikov indicated that he was one of eleven prisoners--most of whom, he claimed, were political prisoners--living in a single cell in almost total isolation. He said Chernobay, the other Turkmenistan citizen sentenced in the espionage case, was one of the cell's occupants. At the end of the letter, Atalikov requested that President Berdimuhamedov pardon him, as he had other prisoners in 2007. If this was not possible, he requested that Berdimuhamedov review his case or even consider stripping Atalikov of his Turkmenistan citizenship and deporting him. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: Post was more than a little surprised that Atalikov's mother would choose to approach the U.S. embassy, given that the espionage of which her son was accused was likely damaging to U.S. interests. We believe that the son is being disingenuous about his access to sensitive information, given the fact that MFA Americas Desk officials see almost all diplomatic traffic between the Embassy and Ministry and attend most of the Embassy's meetings with Turkmenistan government officials. Given the gravity of his alleged crimes, it is unlikely that the mother will be able to do much for her son. END COMMENT. CURRAN