A human rights activist and journalist has died in prison in Turkmenistan, according to a rights group whose director blamed the government Thursday for what he said appeared to have been her violent death. The body of Ogulsapar Muradova had a major head injury and there was evidence of strangulation, said Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, citing contacts in the tightly controlled Central Asian nation. \"It\'s an extremely serious crime that has taken place,\" Rhodes said. \"First of all, because she was unfairly tried and imprisoned, and now she appears to have been the victim of an extrajudicial killing.\" Muradova was associated with the Bulgaria-based Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation rights group, and was also a reporter with U.S.-funded Radio Liberty. She and two other rights defenders were arrested in June and later handed down sentences ranging from six to seven years, according to the International Helsinki Foundation. The charges were unclear. The press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders also demanded a full investigation into Muradova\'s death, and expressed concern about the other two prisoners, one of whom it said was an assistant for French television production company Galaxie-Presse. It said Muradova\'s adult children had been shown her body at a morgue in the capital, Ashgabat. Radio Liberty said Turkmen authorities had declined the family\'s request that a medical examination be done at the morgue but allowed Muradova\'s two adult daughters to take their mother\'s body home after they appealed for help to the U.S. Embassy. The family called a medical examiner but Turkmen security agents surrounded the apartment building and allowed no visitors to the Muradova family, it said. (AP)