Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ASHGABAT1035
2007-09-26 12:58:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:  

TURKMENISTAN: CONDITIONS IN OWADAN PRISON

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KJUS TX 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001035 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/26/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KJUS TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: CONDITIONS IN OWADAN PRISON
REPORTEDLY IMPROVED

REF: ASHGABAT 1030

Classified By: CHARGE RICHARD E. HOAGLAND FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 001035

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/26/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KJUS TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: CONDITIONS IN OWADAN PRISON
REPORTEDLY IMPROVED

REF: ASHGABAT 1030

Classified By: CHARGE RICHARD E. HOAGLAND FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) A longtime Embassy contact, whose brother was
imprisoned for the 2002 attack on the presidential motorcade,
spoke recently with one of the 11 individuals granted
clemency in August. (NOTE: The contact did not specify
which one. END NOTE.) This person told our contact that
rumors she had heard last summer that her brother had died in
prison were false. Shortly before his release, the former
prisoner had seen her brother and could confirm that he was
very much alive. He said the brother, as well as some others
connected to the 2002 attack on Niyazov's motorcade, remain
in Owadan Depe prison and are not being sent to prisons in
Turkmenbashy and Bayramaly, where conditions had been rumored
to be better. That said, this source said conditions at
Owadan Depe are improving. Extra food parcels are being
provided to the prisoners and torture of prisoners had
stopped.


2. (C) According to the Embassy contact, her source
estimates that 360 individuals were imprisoned in connection
with the motorcade attack. (NOTE: No official figure has
ever been released. END NOTE.)


3. (C) COMMENT: There have been many rumors about Owadan
Depe prison, which is widely reputed to have the worst
conditions of any penal institution in Turkmenistan. Even if
the president does not pardon all individuals imprisoned in
connection with the 2002 motorcade attack during the annual
"Night of Omnipotence" amnesty (this year reported to be more
than 9,000 individuals),the news that conditions are
improving for those who continue to wait for a pardon is
welcome and offers hope that the president might eventually
deliver on the promise he made to UK Minister of Energy
Malcolm Wicks to release "prisoners of concern." END
COMMENT.
HOAGLAND