Political prisoners in Turkmenistan are being denied the right to visitations, are held incommunicado and are not allowed any food and clothing parcels from families.This is under the pretext of COVID-19 preventive measures, according to human rights defenders from “Memorial Centre” and the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights report with reference to relatives of inmates.
For instance, family members of lawyer Pygambergeldy Allaberdyev, who was sentenced to a 6 year imprisonment term, have been not permitted to visit him or receive any letters since September 2020.
It is still unclear whether he has been able to appeal against his verdict.
Allaberdyev is serving his sentence in the colony for former law enforcement officers in the village of Akdash in the western province.According to human rights activists, the lawyer’s health is failing and he is suffering from “severe leg pain” but he is being denied any medical care.
The administration of the penitentiary facility has refused to accept any package with medications prescribed for him.
Let us recall that according to the official version, the lawyer was detained in Balkanabat (formerly Nebit-Dag) for hooliganism when an unidentified young man tried to pick a fight with him on the street.
The alleged reason behind the conviction is that he was suspected by the Turkmen special services of connections with activists of the protest movement abroad.
Moreover, prisoners convicted on religious grounds are also denied visitations. In the autumn of 2020 several inmates were transferred from the Bairamali colony to the Ovadan-depe prison supposedly for quarantine measures. Since that time all parcels to the inmates have been banned.
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