On 31 January, Dashoguz city court sentenced the environmental activist Andreï Zatoka to a suspended sentence of three years' imprisonment and ordered his immediate release. Andreï Zatoka's wife Yevgenia Zatoka wrote: "We won! Andrei is free!"

Leading environmental activist and human rights defender, Andreï Zatoka was detained on 17 December as he was traveling to attend a meeting in Moscow with the International Social and Ecological Union.

Andreï Zatoka is an environmental activist and member of the Council of the International Social and Ecological Union, an umbrella organisation of over 340 environmental groups. He co-founded the Dashoguz Ecological Club in 1992. A Turkmen court closed the Dashoguz Ecological Club in 2003. Zatoka was arrested by local police at the airport in Dashoguz and sent an SMS text message to his colleagues to inform them that he was being removed from the plane and was 'in trouble'. He was told that he was being detained for an alleged breach of public order.

At the end of December officers from the Ministry of National Security reportedly searched his apartment and removed his computer and other technical equipment. He was later charged under Article 287, part 1 of the Criminal Code of Turkmenistan, for unlawful acquisition or possession of weapons or explosives, which is punishable by up to five years imprisonment; and under Article 302, part 1, for unlawful circulation of potent or poisonous substances, which is punishable by up to three years imprisonment.

Front Line calls on the authorities to take measures to ensure that all human rights defenders in Turkmenistan, carrying out their legitimate work in human rights, are able to operate free of all restrictions and harassment.