Tajikistan: Another nephew of ex-IRPT leader was detained on suspicion of receiving assistance from abroad

In Bokhtar, the administrative center of Khatlon region, Mukhibullo Nuriddinov (the nephew of the former leader of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) during the years of civil confrontation of Said Abdullo Nuri) was detained.

According to Mukhibullo’s relatives, he is suspected of receiving financial assistance from the opposition outside of Tajikistan.

This is the second nephew of the former leader of the UTO, who was detained on the same charge. On January 24, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Khatlon region detained Nusratullo Saidov.

Abubakr Nuri, brother of Said Abdullo Nuri, who currently lives in Germany, says that Mukhibullo Nuriddinov is now in the pre-trial detention center of Bokhtar. “Mukhibullo doesn’t have a lawyer. Relatives said that he was suspected of receiving financial assistance from abroad. However, the investigation hasn’t yet provided evidence of his guilt,” said Abubakr Nuri.

Journalists note that several people have been sentenced to prison in Tajikistan in recent years for receiving money transfers from the Tajik opposition abroad. Thus, in 2020, the Ismoili Somoni metropolitan district court sentenced Asroriddin Rozykov (the son of Zubaydullo Rozykov, an imprisoned member of the banned IRPT) to five years in prison. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Tajikistan stated at the time that Asroriddin Rozykov was accused of ‘organizing the activities of political parties, a public or religious association or other organization, in respect of which the court made a final decision to liquidate or ban their activities in connection with the implementation of extremist activities’ (Art. 307 (3) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan).

At the time, relatives (abroad) of prisoners didn’t deny sending money to their families, stating that there was nothing illegal in this and the recipients shouldn’t be punished. According to them, their families need help due to unemployment and confiscation of property. However, the Prosecutor’s Office considers such transfers to be one of the forms of organizing the activities of the IRPT, in respect of which the Supreme Court of Tajikistan decided to ban it in October 2015.

Said Abdullo Nuri is a Tajik politician, leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan. During the civil war in Tajikistan, he headed the United Tajik Opposition. In 1997, as the leader of the opposition, he signed a peace agreement with President Emomali Rakhmonov, which ended the civil war. After the signing of the peace agreement in 1997, he headed the National Reconciliation Commission until 1999. Nuri died in Dushanbe in 2006 at the age of 59. In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Zarintoch.