Boris Shikhmuradov
A Tukmen polititian, served as the minister of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan from 1995 to 2000. In March 2001, he became Turkmenistan’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China.
He was arrested on December 25, 2002 in Ashgabad, following an alleged assassination attempt against President Saparmurad Niazov on 25 November 2002. It was alleged that, as part of the plot. On 29.12.2002 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison—the maximum penalty at the time—but the very next day on 30.12.2002, the People’s Council amended the criminal code to allow life sentences for traitors, his sentence was updated accordingly.
Treason, assasination and coup attempt. People’s Council adopted a resolution “On high treason” where certain crimes were qualified as high treason, persons convicted in relation to the events on 25 November 2002 were identified as “traitors” and were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Four days passed between his arrest and sentence. He was tortured and drugged, his confession was read from the paper, he was found guilty on 15 counts including drug use. His sentence from 25 years term to life imprisonment was illegal since it was done by the decision of a political body(People’s Council), without a court verdict and after the events for which he was charged happened.
No relaibale information available
Was held incommunicado. Many international organizations have raised concerns about his health condition in 20023: according to sources he was subjected to torture and received psychoactive and paralytic drug injections, as a result of which, his health has seriously deteriorated, and he is reportedly losing both his physical and mental capabilitiesand No information since 2007; he can still be imprisoned or may have died in prison. According to the other version, he was secretly executed between April 2003 and November 2005.
