Turkmenistan should immediately release a well known environmental and civil society activist who was sentenced to five years in prison today on bogus charges, Human Rights Watch said. The trial of the activist, Andrei Zatoka, violated international fair trial standards.

In a move that defies logic, EU foreign ministers this week scrapped the EU's one remaining sanction against Uzbekistan – a purely symbolic embargo on arms sales – despite Tashkent's defiance of the human-rights criteria the EU had set for its lifting.

Turkmen authorities should immediately release an activist arrested on what appear to be politically motivated grounds.

Human Rights Watch joined the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and 14 other groups in issuing a statement today calling on governments and companies that have recently gained access to Turkmenistan to use their connection to improve the lives of the country’s more than 5 million people. The groups said these governments and companies should also press Turkmenistan to allow international civil society groups and human rights organizations to work in the country.

Turkmen authorities should immediately revoke a new travel ban imposed on students bound for foreign private universities.

The EU has just sent a clear message to Turkmenistan: human rights do not feature in our relationship.

A Turkmen political prisoner, Mukhametkuli Aymuradov, was freed on May 2, 2009 after serving 14 years in prison on trumped-up charges.

The European Union should press the Turkmen government to improve its abysmal human rights record before agreeing to enhanced relations with the country