Mass Trial for Cotton Fraud in Turkmenistan

Twenty-one officials and staff from the lucrative cotton industry are beginning lengthy jail terms after being found guilty of embezzling funds, defrauding customers with regard to the quality of cotton, and fiddling the accounts.

The trial ended on May 2 in Dashoguz, a town in northern Turkmenistan, with sentences of between five and 17 years.

The defendants included the directors of four cotton ginning plants, warehouse managers, and distribution and purchasing agents working for Turkmenpagta, a state-run cotton firm.

The prosecutions were brought by the Ministry of National Security or MNB, an indication of how seriously the case was regarded.

Observers said the trial took place in public but no media were allowed in.

"Every defendant was formally assigned a lawyer," one observer said. "Yet there was no active defence since the outcome of this trial – with the MNB behind it – was known in advance."

Since President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov came to power in 2007, the authorities have conducted inspections of various industrial sectors, and accused managers of theft and other abuses.

This follows the pattern set by his predecessor, the late Saparmurat Niazov, under whose rule there were periodic trials of cotton-sector employees. The accusation was often that they had overstated production figure. Many experts believe the only reason people do this is because the government – the monopoly buyer of cotton – sets producers ridiculously high targets which they have no hope of achieving.

In 2009, 24 people were given long jail terms after an inspection of the state-run grain products enterprise in Dashoguz, while last year over 40 oil and gas industry officials were imprisoned for similar maladministration.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.