A former RFE/RL correspondent in Turkmenistan has died at his home in the northern Turkmen city of Koneurgench following a long illness that supporters say was brought on by pressure from the authorities over his journalistic activity.
Hudaiberdy Allashov died on August 13 at the age of 35 and was buried the following day, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known as Azatlyk in Turkmen, reported.
Using the pseudonym Mekan Tashliyev, Allashov worked with RFE/RL for three months in 2016. Among other topics, he reported on the government's use of forced labor to harvest cotton in the Dashoguz area, food shortages, and wage arrears among state officials.
In December 2016, he and his mother were arrested and accused of possession of chewing tobacco, which is illegal in the authoritarian former Soviet republic. RFE/RL reported that authorities in Dashoguz had learned Allashov's identity the day of his arrest.
Sources told RFE/RL that he was tortured by police in Koneurgench, including with electric shocks. Police also questioned his wife and two young children.
In February 2017, Allashov and his mother were given three-year suspended prison sentences, following calls by diplomats and rights groups for their release. Fearing for his safety, Allashov stopped working with RFE/RL.
Allashov was arrested again in October 2019 and was beaten during several hours of interrogation. His mother, Kurbantach Arazmedova, fell ill under the stress of her son's arrest and died in a hospital of a heart attack.
During police interrogation in November 2019, Allashov said, he was told that the authorities would not leave him alone "until they drove him to his grave."
Allashov was arrested again in December 2023 and told by police that this time he would be imprisoned "for a long time." But following action by rights groups and diplomats, he was given a 15-day jail sentence.
Allashov is survived by his wife and two minor children.