Kh. Mirsaidov: accusations against journalist Daler Sharipov cause laughter

The press center of the General Prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Tajikistan reported that, in the period of 2013-2019, Daler Sharipov published over 200 articles and notes of extremist content aimed at inciting religious intolerance and promoting the superiority of some citizens in relation to others in terms of religious orientation.

“In particular, in June 2019, D. Sharipov illegally published 100 copies of tract in an underground printing house. According to the conclusion of the religious expert examination, the tract was developed in the context of the movement “Ikhvon-ul-muslimin” (“Muslim brethren”), which is recognized as terrorist in many countries of the world and aims to persuade young people to the ideology of jihad, and also encourages them to commit terrorist and extremist acts,” is noted in the statement. “In this regard, taking into account the presence of corpus delicti in the actions of D. Sharipov – inciting religious intolerance and hatred – on January 28, 2020 a criminal case was instituted against him on the grounds of part 1 of article 189 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan. By decision of I. Somoni District court of the city of Dushanbe, on January 30, 2020, he was detained.”

In the meantime, the Tajik civil and journalistic community came out in support of the arrested journalist, demanding the release of Daler Sharipov from custody. The statement, signed by 7 non-governmental organizations and dozens of journalists and lawyers, provides article 30 of the Constitution of Tajikistan, which guarantees freedom of speech and press, and prohibits state censorship and prosecution for criticism. Thus, journalists and civic activists believe that the arrest of Daler Sharipov is related to his journalistic activities. They called on the authorities to change the preventive measure to non-custodial, conduct an effective investigation with strict observance of all guarantees of freedom of expression in accordance with international standards, and expressed the hope that the rule of law and access to justice will be rigorously ensured during the investigation of the case of Daler Sharipov.

For comments on the charges against Daler Sharipov, ACCA turned to journalist Khairullo Mirsaidov, who was also charged with this article 2 years ago.

– Tell, please, how reasonable can the Prosecutor’s accusations against journalist Daler Sharipov be considered?

– The statement of the State Office of Public Prosecutor causes only laughter. They say that Sharipov had been publishing extremist materials for 7 years, but did not cite a single convincing fact. Where have law enforcement agencies looked at these years? With their statement, they actually once again speak about their absolute incompetence. Two years ago, the same statements were made in my case. The Prosecutor General’s office accused me of all mortal sins, while not having a single fact. Sitting in the detention center, I regularly listened to these statements on the radio. The fabricated case against me by two corrupt prosecutors found the support of their head, and thus they tried to protect their image.

– Do you think that the case against Daler Sharipov is as ordered as in your case?

– Of course! Sharipov has been harshly criticizing corrupt officials all these years. It is enough to read his posts on Facebook in this regard. Of course, many people did not like him for this, and it seems that he, like in my case, touched one of the high-ranking officials whose activities in Tajikistan today “should not be touched”. Otherwise, why did the State Committee for National Security get involved in this case, and then a statement was made by the Prosecutor General? The law enforcement system executes orders of the executive branch, and it does not matter whether the person is to blame or not.

– But, the Prosecutor’s office stated that the content of the materials of Daler Sharipov was evaluated by a special examination …

– As far as I know, an official examination has not yet been conducted. Most likely, the Prosecutor’s office is based on the assessment of some expert, but I know how they do it. In my case, the role of such an expert was the journalist of a state newspaper, which I personally had known for a long time. After reading his analysis, I could not believe that such a nonsense could be written by a person who is fluent in Russian. Distortions, lies and ignorance of the elementary level of Russian language; all this was in his conclusion. It is clear that he wrote all this under pressure from prosecutors, and on the basis of this, accusations of inciting ethnic racial and religious hatred were appeared.

– Have you demanded an objective linguistic examination?

– Of course, but the result of this examination was even worse. Eight or nine people, who were part of this examination, wrote so many nonsenses that I sat and laughed out loud. All of them had to be sent to school to learn the basics of the Russian language. But, of course, I understood that they also fulfilled the order of the Prosecutor’s office. Then, one of my lawyers did not sign a non-disclosure subscription, and I demanded that he publish the results of this examination, and moreover, I posted on the Internet all the materials in which I allegedly violated the Law. I wanted everyone to see how the Prosecutor’s office actually works, and the people themselves evaluated the materials. Fearing publicity, the investigation ordered another examination, which no longer found anything illegal in our materials. Thus, the charge under article 189 was dropped.

– Perhaps the lawyers of Daler Sharipov should also demand the publication of the results of the examination?

– For sure, but now he has one lawyer who has already undertaken not to disclose the details of the case. This once again proves that the investigation has nothing. Now they are turning upside down Sharipov’s whole life to find what else to blame. This is exactly what happened in my case. They understood that all the charges against me had no basis, therefore they demanded that I provide them with my laptop, send people who threatened me, my family, watched my friends and family, and even became interested in my sex life. In general, they needed to find something on me, since the pressure from the international community was enormous. As a result, they didn’t find anything, and the investigation brought to court three of the four articles that accused me initially. In court, I completely proved my innocence and, moreover, I revealed and proved the guilt of the real criminals, and demanded that the court and the prosecutor initiate a criminal case against them, but they did nothing. It proves once again that my case was framed-up. I am sure that Daler Sharipov is now experiencing all this on himself. I hope he has the strength and health to overcome it all.