The international organization Freedom Now has filed a petition on behalf of Tajik journalist Daler Sharipov to the UN working group on arbitrary detention. Freedom Now claims that the detention of Sharipov is a violation of government obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“The imprisonment of Daler Sharipov is another chapter in Tajikistan’s long history of abusing anti-extremist laws to suppress legitimate criticism of government policies,” said Karl Horberg, the program officer of Freedom Now. “We are confident that the UN working group on arbitrary detention will decide that the basic human rights of Sharipov were violated, first of all, his right to freedom of expression. Freedom Now calls on the Tajik government to fulfill its international obligations and immediately release Sharipov.”
Recall, on January 28, 2020, Sharipov was summoned to the State Committee for National Security in Dushanbe, where he was arrested without an arrest warrant and was not informed about the grounds for his arrest. Later that day, police ransacked Sharipov’s apartment and confiscated a computer and books in Arabic, Tajik and Russian. On January 29, he was transferred to the detention center of the State Committee for National Security. He was provided with a lawyer of the Independent Center for the Protection of Human Rights. In the early days of his detention, Sharipov was kept without communication with either his family or his lawyer.
On January 30, Sharipov was charged under article 189 of the Criminal Code for “inciting ethnic, racial, local, or religious strife”. He was ordered to remain in pre-trial detention for two months awaiting investigation. His lawyers appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, and he was denied.
On February 1, the Prosecutor General’s office issued a statement explaining that the indictment was made up of more than 200 articles and notes that Sharipov published between 2013 and 2019, which were allegedly extremist. In particular, he emphasized the manuscript on the incompatibility of Islam and terrorism, published by an underground publisher. The statement stated that the manuscript was written in support of the Muslim Brotherhood.
On April 16, 2020, Sharipov was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison. He is currently serving a sentence in penal colony 3/13.
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