Turkmenistan 's authorities have brought new charges against an imprisoned activist who had been scheduled for release earlier in June 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately and unconditionally free the activist, Murad Dushemov, and drop all abusive efforts to extend his detention.
Dushemov was jailed in 2021, following an arbitrary prosecution for criticizing the authorities, and was due to be released on June 14, 2025. But on June 10, authorities transferred him from the prison colony in Seydi, Lebap province, where he was serving his sentence, to a pretrial detention facility in Turkmenabat, also known as Abdy Shukur prison.
"Dushemov has already suffered a terrible miscarriage of justice due to his peaceful activism," said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Turkmen authorities should immediately release him and not subject him to another bogus prosecution and unfair trial."
The government of Turkmenistan has an appalling human rights record, is extremely repressive, and tolerates no dissent. It has unlawfully imprisoned people for exercising their right to free speech. Individuals imprisoned on politically motivated charges experience abysmal prison conditions and ill-treatment. Torture and incommunicado detention are a serious concern. Dozens remain victims of enforced disappearances.
In 2021, Dushemov published videos criticizing the Turkmen government's policies and challenging its official narrative related to the Covid-19 pandemic. He demanded access to accurate information about the situation and questioned restrictions imposed by the authorities who falsely claimed Covid-19 was not present in the country.
On June 18, 2025, the Netherlands-based outlet Turkmen.news reported that Dushemov's whereabouts were unknown and that he may be facing new charges, based on a dubious allegation by another prisoner that Dushemov had broken his arm.
The timing and source of the new charges, combined with the opaque nature of Turkmenistan's prison system, strongly suggests the charges are fabricated, Human Rights Watch said. In at least several instances, Turkmen authorities have previously brought fabricated charges against people in their custody to extend their prison's sentence.
On June 21, Turkmen.news reported that the head of the Abdy Shukur prison confirmed to Dushemov's mother, who had gone to look for him at the facility the day before, that Dushemov is being held there and was expected to face a new trial in about 10 days. The prison chief said the new charges stem from an alleged "fight with cellmates." He also told her that a state-appointed lawyer has been assigned to the case but refused to provide the lawyer's contact information or allow her to visit her son.
The Vienna-based Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR) reported that on June 25, a lawyer told Dushemov's relatives that his trial would take place soon, but had no information on the charges against him or the exact date of the hearing. TIHR also corroborated the claims that shortly before Dushemov's sentence was set to end, another inmate was placed in his cell, who falsely claimed that Dushemov assaulted him.
In June 2021, Turkmen authorities fined Dushemov 100 Turkmen manat (US$28) for allegedly using profanity in public places the day after he published a video requesting information about the "country's epidemiological situation" and asked questions about the Covid-19 vaccination requirements in one of Ashgabat's hospitals.
On July 7, 2021, authorities sentenced Dushemov to a 15-days arrest for "petty hooliganism," an administrative offence, after he had blocked a road with his car. The arrest followed a verbal dispute at a checkpoint when officers barred Dushemov from leaving Ashgabat, claiming he lacked a certificate proving that he had tested negative for Covid-19. Police reportedly refused to provide any legal basis for demanding such a certificate and held him at the checkpoint for four hours.
On July 22, 2021, when Dushemov's detention ended, authorities did not free him but instead initiated a criminal investigation against him. Three weeks later, a court in Dashoguz sentenced Dushemov to a four-year prison term on trumped-up charges of extortion and intentional infliction of moderate bodily harm. The charges stemmed from a manufactured fight with a cellmate during his 15-day jail sentence and from an alleged complaint by a hospital doctor who accused Dushemov of attempted extortion in exchange for not publishing a video filmed in the hospital. Dushemov denied all charges.
Turkmen authorities have a long record of persecuting people they suspect of disloyalty to the government, Human Rights Watch said.
Among those currently serving politically motivated sentences is Mansur Mingelov; arrested in 2012 shortly after he had spoken out about beatings he experienced and witnessed during two weeks in police custody. He was sentenced later that year to 22 years in prison on bogus narcotics charges.
Pygambergeldy Allaberdyev, a lawyer sentenced to six years in prison in 2020 on bogus allegations of connections with activists abroad and pardoned in December 2022, remains subject to a five-year travel ban. In January 2025, authorities barred Nurgledy Khalykov, a Turkmen.news stringer, who in 2024 had completed a four-year prison term on fabricated fraud charges, from traveling to the UAE for work.
Authorities twice prevented Soltan Achilova, an activist and independent journalist, from travelling to Geneva for a human rights award ceremony. In November 2024, authorities forcibly hospitalized her on false pretenses and in November 2023, border officials deliberately damaged Achilova's passport and refused to allow her through passport control.
In March 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Committee in its concluding observations on Turkmenistan's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, expressed deep concern "about reports of the widespread practice of persecution of civil society representatives … who peacefully exercise their freedom of expression…," and "about numerous reports that politically motivated criminal trials occur behind "closed doors." It called for the release of Dushemov and Mingelov.
In May 2023, Dushemov and three other prisoners wrote to the UN office in Turkmenistan, stating their cases were fabricated, and their rights continued to be violated in detention. The prisoners asked UN representatives to visit them in custody. In response to Turkmen.news' written questions about the letter, the UN resident coordinator for Turkmenistan stated that he "is in contact with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva on this issue."
Turkmenistan's international partners should press Turkmenistan to end Dushemov's baseless detention and immediately free him and others imprisoned in apparent retaliation for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said. They should also press Turkmen authorities to stop persecuting people, including through arbitrary travel bans, in retribution for their peaceful activism.
"Turkmenistan should free Dushemov and stop using the justice system to punish peaceful dissent," Denber said. "We are witnessing yet again that rather than rectify an injustice, the government is doubling down on its wholesale disregard for rights and the rule of law, and other governments should not ignore it."
