APPEAL IN SUPPORT OF ANDREI ZATOKA

 Please add your voice.  This man has committed NO CRIME but has been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.  Only our pressure on international bodies and their pressure on the Turkmen authorities can help him

Within hours of the sentence being passed, this collective statement had been signed by 360 individuals and representatives of civic movements. Please sign it and send it to others.

On 29 October 2009 in Dashoguz, Turkmenistan, a flagrantly trumped up prosecution ended in the sentencing of Russian national Andrei Zatoka, one of the leaders of the environmental movement in the post-Soviet area to 5 years imprisonment.

The international environmental protection community knows and values Zatoka as a committed and determined advocate fighting for the protection of the natural environment, a talented biologist and researcher who has done much for nature preservation and raising environmental and civic awareness among the younger generation both in Turkmenistan and in other countries. Thousands of people know Andrei as an honest and responsible scientist who would not be capable of unlawful actions.

The environmental and human rights community express their emphatic protest over the persecution of this environmentalist and serious concern for his life and health. We demand that Andrei Zatoka is released immediately and that the necessary measures are taken to defend his rights.