Akdash Prison: Months Without Contact, Reports of Tuberculosis, and Families Who Do Not Know Whether Their Loved Ones Are Alive The situation in Turkmenistan’s Akdash prison is raising serious concerns about the lives and health of inmates. According to Radio Azatlyk, reporting on 7 September 2026, many families have effectively lost contact with their imprisoned relatives since June: there have been no phone calls, no visits, no possibility to deliver medicines or food, and virtually no official information about the prisoners’ condition. Sources from the Balkan, Mary, Lebap and Ahal regions told the outlet that after some inmates were transferred to a new building at Akdash, communication with them stopped. One woman said that her husband had previously called about twice a week. After telling her in June that he was about to be transferred, the calls ceased — and the family has now had no information about him for almost four months. Other relatives say that for more than three months they have not been allowed to deliver even food or medicines to prisoners. People travel to the prison gates but are denied visits and sent away. According to relatives, prison officials have justified the restrictions by citing the spread of hepatitis and tuberculosis among inmates and the introduction of quarantine measures. Some families were reportedly told to return only in mid-October. At the same time, they say they have received no written notifications about the condition of the prisoners and have not been given any official contact channel through which they can obtain reliable information. Particular concern surrounds reports about events during the past summer. Sources cited by Azatlyk claim that in July, the bodies of dozens of Akdash prisoners were returned to their families. According to those accounts, the official explanation was that they had died from lack of oxygen during extreme heat. Relatives also allege that the bodies were delivered in sealed metal coffins or containers, that families were not permitted to see the deceased before burial, and that security officials remained present until the funerals were completed. These allegations require an independent and transparent investigation. Radio Azatlyk reported that its attempts to obtain comments from the prison administration, local authorities and regional police were unsuccessful. Quarantine Must Not Mean That a Person Disappears Even if an outbreak of infectious disease has genuinely occurred inside the prison, quarantine does not relieve the state of its obligation to provide inmates with medical care and to keep their families informed. It is especially alarming when, under the pretext of sanitary restrictions, phone contact, visits, the delivery of medicines, and access to information about a prisoner’s condition are all suspended at the same time. A person does not lose their fundamental rights upon imprisonment. The state bears direct responsibility for their life, health and safety precisely because the individual is entirely under state control. Reports of widespread tuberculosis, inadequate medical care, poor nutrition and corruption in Turkmenistan’s detention facilities are not new. International human rights reports have also repeatedly raised concerns about torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, dangerous prison conditions, and the situation of political prisoners. According to World Prison Brief data cited by Azatlyk, in 2022 Turkmenistan had an incarceration rate of approximately 576 prisoners per 100,000 people — roughly one prisoner for every 175 residents. The situation in Akdash is therefore no longer only a question of prison conditions. It is also a question of a family’s right to know whether their loved one is alive. The authorities of Turkmenistan must immediately provide families with reliable information about prisoners, ensure access to necessary medical treatment and medicines, restore safe forms of communication, and allow an independent investigation into reports of deaths and a possible outbreak of infectious diseases. Prison silence must not become state policy. A person must not disappear from their family’s life simply because a prison door has closed behind them.
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