Updated report on the disappeared in Turkmenistan’s prisons
In September 2018, The Prove They Alive! campaign published an updated report on the disappeared in Turkmenistan’s prisons. The number of disappearances in this updated list has increased to 121 compared to 113 documented in our previous list in February 2018.
One must keep in mind that in the context of severe suppression of civil liberties and denial of access to the country for foreign human rights organizations and international observers, this list is inevitably incomplete. According to our estimates, the total number of victims of enforced and involuntary disappearances in Turkmenistan is in the order of hundreds, and some prisoners have been held incommunicado since 2002.
The list of the disappeared is separated into four categories: the so-called Novemberists (those convicted in connection with the alleged coup attempt of November 25, 2002), those charged with Islamic extremism, those charged with economic crimes and abuse of power, and civil society activists.
The report will be presented on September 12 in Warsaw at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, one of the largest human rights conference in the world.