The two deceased prisoners of conscience were members of an informal Sunni Muslim study group led by Bahram Saparov, a resident of Turkmenabat in Lebap Region. Saparov and 19 others – including Yaylanov – were arrested in March 2013 and sentenced to long prison terms in May 2013. Baltayev was among other members of the group sentenced in separate trials later.

When several people returning from an evening church service tried to stop the killings and make videos of it, the slaughterers called the police. The community services killed nearly 20 dogs, including the puppets on the photo, and other animals were heard howling inside their cars.

Under the strain of torture and abuse experienced in the pre-trial detention center, 17-year-old boys repeatedly tried to commit suicide, slitting their wrists or smashing their heads against the wall. When that happened, the warders and investigators laughed and said: “And now what? Allah Akbar? Where is your Allah now?”

The AOC conferred with a number of the sports that could participate at the Games. After discussions the AOC was made aware that the majority of these sports had already locked in their schedules for the year with many of them having long term plans in place focusing on the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Her claim was taken forward immediately: in three days the police arrived to Hajiev’s house during his lunch break and, without a warrant or an appropriate registration at the local police office, forcefully detained him, his wife and his daughter-in-law.

Radio Azatlyk reported that a woman whom police alleged had sold Allashov the product said she had seen the journalist at the police station severely bruised and unable to hold up his head or to speak. The broadcaster said several other witnesses confirmed the woman’s account.

Isolating Hekim Hajiev from the outside world, making him an outcast among his relatives and claiming him to be the main cause of all problems – these are silent steps of the authorities to lay the basis for Hajiev’s enforced disappearance.

After being interrogated for several hours in the street and refusing to go to a police station, she was eventually allowed to leave. But she was attacked, insulted and robbed by a woman and three men just a few minutes later. In a state of shock, she finally managed to return home.

The punishment cells have nothing but an iron bed without bedding. Climate control systems are mounted on the wall, and as an additional punishment, the guards can turn on cooling in winter and heating in summer. Furthermore, they turn up the music to maximum volume, which makes one’s eardrums “explode.”