Pussy Riot member and political activist Aysoltan Niyazova was arrested under false pretences at the Croatian border on May 29 2022. She is now in danger of being extradited to Turkmenistan where she could face the death penalty. 

Aysoltan Niyazova’s arrest was reported on Instagram by fellow Pussy Riot member Olga Borisova. Niyazova was not provided with a lawyer or an interpreter for her trial in Croatia on May 30th. She is currently detained in a prison in Zagreb and awaiting her appeal on June 3rd.

Niyazova’s father was a political opponent of the Turkmen regime and died in prison in the 2000s. Living in Moscow at the time of his arrest, Niyazova fled with her son to Switzerland.

She was arrested in January 2011 on trumped-up charges alleging she was responsible for the embezzlement of $20 million from the Central Bank of Turkmenistan. Due to this, she was incarcerated in Geneva for eight months only to be extradited to Russia to serve six years in a penal colony on behalf of the Turkmen government.

In prison, Niyazova met Russian Pussy Riot activist Masha Alyokhina and joined the cause. She had been advocating for the rights of political prisoners.

When Niyazova was released from prison, she received a German Schengen visa and Swiss laissez-passer. Despite this documentation, she is threatened to be sent back to Turkmenistan where she could face the death penalty.

Her lawyers demand she is immediately released and granted political asylum to safely remain in the EU.

This press release was sent by Aysoltan Niyazova’s campaign supporters.

She has since been released.