Rakhim Esenov, Turkmenistan
The novelist and historian Rakhim Esenov was charged with “inciting social, national and religious hatred” following the publication of his novel Ventsenosny Skitalets in 2003. Set in the sixteenth-century Mughal Empire, the novel centres on Bayram Khan, the poet, philosopher and army general who saved the empire from dissolution. In February 1997, President Niyazov criticized Esenov's “historical errors” for his (correct) portrayal of Bayram Khan as a Shia rather than a Sunni Muslim. In February 2004, on his return to Turkmenistan after medical treatment abroad, Esenov, then 76, was interrogated by Ministry of National Security (MNB) officers in the capital Ashgabat. Already in poor health following a heart attack two days prior to his arrest, he suffered a stroke during interrogation and was taken to hospital. After further interrogation he was placed in the hospital's intensive care unit, under the strict control of the MNB. Esenov was initially accused of smuggling 800 copies of his novel into Turkmenistan from Russia, but the charges were dropped after he produced evidence that customs duty had been paid for the books. In April 2006, Esenov was allowed to leave Turkmenistan to receive the PEN American / Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write award. In February 2008 PEN learned that the case against him had been dropped and that he was allowed to return home.

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