The three men named above were sentenced to death for aggravated murder on or about 14 November 1992 in Ashgabat. They were tried by the Supreme Court, acting as a court of first instance and do not, therefore, have a right of appeal. They were convicted of murdering an inmate of a corrective labour colony on 31 May 1992; Mikhail Chirkunov and Saparbay Garakhanov were also inmates of the Tedzhen labour colony. The prosecution identified Ahmed Nuryyev as the leader of a criminal gang who had ordered the murder. This is the second time that Chirkunov and Garakhanov were tried for this murder: they were originally sentenced to imprisonment but following Nureyyev’s arrest in May 1992 the case was referred for further investigation. AI is calling for the sentences to be commuted.
