Exactly a week has passed since the detention of journalists and bloggers Zavkibek Saidamini and Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda, but the authorities do not report their whereabouts or voiced the charges against them.
On July 14, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also expressed concern about the fate of the bloggers, calling on Dushanbe to announce the whereabouts of the detainees and immediately release them. “Keeping the whereabouts of the detained bloggers in the strictest confidence is unacceptable and is a blatant disregard for the country’s legislation,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator.
Recall, on July 7, Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda was summoned to the department of the Organized Crime Control Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Vahdat and was subjected to intensive interrogation for several hours. They searched his house, confiscated his mobile phone, and took a receipt that he would not disclose the details of the interrogation to anyone.
After information about Pirmuhammadzoda appeared in a number of media on July 8, in the evening of the same day he was again summoned to the Organized Crime Control Department and no one saw Abdusattor again. On the same day, on the evening of July 8, another journalist and social media activist, Zavkibek Saidamini, was detained. Both spoke on social networks in support of the arrested colleagues Daleri Imomali and Abdullo Gurbati. What exactly they are charged with is unknown. Recently, there has been a trend when security forces take a non-disclosure agreement from lawyers and relatives of detainees and, under threats, force them to remain silent and not to communicate with the press.
“Detention is a temporary measure, so it is very important to keep track of the clock. According to the country’s legislation, law enforcement officers have the right to detain a suspected person only for up to 72 hours. Three days after the actual detention, a charge must either be brought and the court must either decide on a measure of restraint or release the detainee, ”says the lawyer on anonymous terms. “However, what we are seeing is a gross violation of human rights and legislation by law enforcement agencies in Tajikistan,” the source said.
