Attack on Soltan Achilova of RFE/RL’s Turkmen service
Soltan Achilova was questioned by four police officers and threatened with arrest after taking photos of long queues at a state-owned store in the capital city Ashgabat on October 25.
After she was released by police several hours later, three men and a woman in plain clothes caught up with her, demanded she deleted all the photos, and then attacked her, snatching her bag and her camera away. Achilova’s mobile phone has not worked and she’s had no internet connection since the attack.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the assault on Achilova, 67, was the latest in a series of attacks on RFE/RL correspondents in the tightly controlled Central Asian country.