Owadan-depe (also Owadandepe, Owadan Depe, Ovadan Depe, 'beautiful hill' in Turkmen) is a prison for political inmates in the Ahal Region of Turkmenistan established by the regime of former President Saparmyrat Nyýazow to incarcerate political opposition supporters, former public officials and prisoners charged with supporting Wahhabism.

[4][5][6][7][8] It has been reported that the planning of the prison was started shortly before the assassination attempt against President Nyýazow in November 2002 and the following wave of repressions.

[11] Another riot occurred in 2007, when prisoners started to cut their veins and stab their stomachs en masse to protest continued beatings and torture.

[5][7] Owadan-depe is known for its appalling conditions: in summer the cells are hot and poorly ventilated, in winter – cold and unheated; sanitation problems; inadequate drinking water, food, medicine and medical care.

[citation needed] Prisoners have no means of contact with the rest of the world – meeting relatives, receiving packages from them, newspapers, television, radio and phones are forbidden.

[citation needed] The government also bars representatives of international, religious and human rights organisations from visiting the prison.

There are reports of various types of torture: needles being pinned under nails, by strangulation, by live electric wires, sexual abuse, forced intake of psychoactive substances and the deprivation of food and water.

Ordinary convicts must wear a tag on their chest with their surname and the article of the Criminal Code under which they have been sentenced, political prisoners – a number and the Turkmen phrase "Watan dönügi" ("Traitor of the homeland") on their backs.