02.27.2001 Saparmurat Ovezberdyev
On 27 February of 2001 the Ashkhabad correspondent of the Turkmen Service of Radio “Liberty”, Saparmurat Ovezberdyev arrived to Moscow on a business trip.
After getting his luggage in “Domodedovo” airport Ovezberdyev and his son Kerem were stopped by customs official, who checked visas, and offered to proceed to special premises for more careful examination of the luggage. Cellophane package containing 4000 U.S. dollars was found during inspection of one of the two bags checked in Ashkhabad. According to assertion of the customs officers, those dollars were counterfeit. Saparmurat Ovezberdyev has declared, that his belongings were carefully examined by customs officials in Turkmenistan and that discovered false denominations do not belong to him.
The journalist and his son have spent about 4 hours in customs room, and about one hour in Domodedovo police station. Already after discovery of the money, customs officials in presence of the witnesses drew up a report about personal inspection, during which no forbidden imported goods were found. Ovezberdyev was forced to make a signed statement, which said that 4000 thousand dollars were returned to him, then false money were confiscated by employees of the Russian law enforcement bodies without any registration.
According to Ovezberdyev, the militia investigator, who heard Ovezberdyev’s description of this incident, said that this “incident was specially organized”. The fact that Ovezberdyev saw a paper with his surname on the table of the customs officer speaks in favor of this version. Besides, curator of the journalist in KNB of Turkmenistan Iskander Kurbanov, who asked to transport some gifts to his friend in Moscow, unexpectedly declared less than a day before Ovezberdyev’s departure, that his friend is not there, therefore he “is not going to pass anything”.
Source: HRC Memorial, Moscow
Source - http://www.turkmenmedia.cjes.ru/mon/index-en.php?id=166