New Pretrial Detention Center Built in Dashoguz Province

A new pretrial detention center was commissioned about a month ago in the settlement of Gulistan, on the southern outskirts of Dashoguz. The facility, which consists of several buildings, is surrounded by at least four fences and more closely resembles a penal colony or even a prison. One of the buildings has roofless exercise yards, similar to those found at Ovadan-Depe prison (AH-T/2) and Abdy-Shukur prison (LB-D/9 pretrial detention center in Turkmenabat).

According to a source who spoke to turkmen.news, construction was completed behind schedule and with numerous deficiencies. Due to a lack of funding, security officials sought creative ways to obtain the resources needed for construction.

Road police officers and employees of the provincial Registration and Examination Department (RED) who were caught taking bribes or otherwise found to have committed misconduct were forced to deliver a KamAZ truckload of gravel or asphalt, cement or other construction materials.

“Of course, the traffic police officers did not pay for these materials out of their own pockets. They made ordinary drivers bear the cost,” a source in one of the province’s law enforcement agencies told turkmen.news.

In Turkmenistan, construction projects often end up costing more than expected and taking longer than planned, frequently because of corruption. As a result, everyone is expected to pitch in to finish the work. In late 2025, for example, a residential complex with 1,500 apartments opened near Dashoguz. Contractors who had completed their portions of the work on time provided free assistance to those who had fallen behind, while dozens of companies, including firms with no connection to construction, supplied materials for the final stage. However, this was not an example of cooperation but the result of coercion by senior officials in Dashoguz and Shabat district, who had themselves embezzled the allocated resources and caused the delays.

The Interior Ministry oversees all correctional facilities in Turkmenistan and their construction. It also supervises the road police and the Registration and Examination Department. The latter handles vehicle registration and re-registration, technical inspections, and the issuance and reissuance of driver’s licenses. In Dashoguz, its office is located right next to the new pretrial detention center.

According to the source, the old pretrial detention center, which was housed in a former women’s colony on Ilyalinskaya Street until 2013, will be demolished.

In her 2025 report, Turkmenistan’s ombudswoman, Yazdursun Gurbannazarova, proposed building more prisons. She argued that this would help address overcrowding in the country’s correctional facilities. The Turkmen government appears less concerned with reducing the number of people imprisoned in the first place. According to the World Prison Brief, as of 2026, Turkmenistan ranks third in the world for the number of prisoners per 100,000 people.