A Russian activist close to the group Pussy Riot was released on Friday, five days after her arrest at the request of Turkmenistan while traveling to Croatia with the famous punk group, on a European tour to denounce the Russian invasion of the ‘Ukraine.
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Aisoltan Niiazova, a Russian national of Turkmen origin, made a statement to the press after leaving a prison in Zagreb where she was being held pending a decision on her possible extradition.
“I am in shock. An hour ago, I was talking to my lawyer and we were convinced that I would spend the weekend, Monday and Tuesday in prison, but here I am, I am free,” the activist told N1 television.
Smiling, she was dressed in a long blue coat stamped with the message in English “Ukraine is freedom. Freedom is Ukraine” (“Ukraine is freedom. Freedom is Ukraine”).
She was released after a hearing in a court in Zagreb. The court declined to communicate with the press before informing the parties of its decision.
Aisoltan Niiazova was arrested by Croatian border police on Sunday as she entered the country from Slovenia.
The Russian protest group Pussy Riot started a series of concerts across Europe in mid-May in Berlin to denounce the war in Ukraine and to raise funds for organizations helping Ukraine. He gave a concert in the Croatian capital on Monday.
The members of the group had called for her release on Wednesday, saying that she had already served a six-year prison sentence in Russia for the acts of which she is accused by the Turkmen courts.
This Central Asian country, one of the most closed on the planet, issued an arrest warrant against Niiazova in 2002.
According to a Croatian court which took up the case, she is wanted for an alleged “embezzlement”.
Niiazova has a Russian passport and a German residence visa valid until 2024, according to the same source.
Her release had also been demanded by the NGO Amnesty International, which had claimed that her activism would have exposed her to a “great risk of abuse” in Turkmenistan.
