In the near future, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan will recognize the “Commission 44” created by civil activists in GBAO as a “criminal community,” ACCA sources said. The authorities do not give any comments on this matter.
“Commission 44” was created on November 28 last year immediately after the participants of the spontaneous rallies in Khorog reached an agreement with the authorities. Six members of this unregistered public organization were part of a joint investigation team created by order of the country’s president.
However, in January of this year, Khujamri Pirnazarov, referred to in the media as the press secretary of this group, said that the group was temporarily ceasing cooperation with the prosecutor’s office. Following an open letter from members of the group to Rustam Emomali, chairman of the Majlisi Milli (upper house of parliament), members of Commission 44 and investigators from the General Prosecutor’s Office of Tajikistan met online on April 19 this year to discuss the investigation into the November 2021 events.
After the May protests, at least seven members of this group were detained, and two of them were sentenced to long prison terms: Khujamri Pirnazarov and Shaftolu Bekdavlatov were sentenced to 18 years.
Both were accused, among other things, of membership in a criminal community. Only under this article, the sanction provides for imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years.
At a press conference in the Supreme Court on July 14, it was also confirmed that two members of the “Commission 44” Khujamri Pirnazarov and Shaftolu Bekdavlatov were guilty of organizing a criminal community.
At the same time, the judge of the Supreme Court explained that the members of the “Commission 44” “established strong relations with the National Alliance, an organization banned in Tajikistan, and leaders of locally organized crime groups, and with their funding created a criminal community called” Commission 44 “.
As evidence, the authorities also cite a video posted on the pomiri.info website, where Faromuz Irgashev sits on the presidium, and Mamadbokir Mamadbokirov, speaking to local residents, who died under unknown circumstances in June this year, calls the leaders of the operation “Moguls”, which in itself is already may be regarded by the authorities as inciting hatred on ethnic grounds.
Leaders and members of the self-proclaimed public organization “Commission 44” have always denied any connection with organizations banned in Tajikistan, as well as funding from abroad.
