Tajikistan: authorities extradited another activist from Russia

In Tajikistan, they finally shed light on the fate of Amriddin Alovatshoev, a native of GBAO, who disappeared in Moscow three weeks ago, and his relatives had no information about him.

However, paradoxically, the heads of the two departments (the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office), who held press conferences on the same day, February 2, with an hour difference, told journalists contradictory information on this case.

First, there was a meeting of journalists with the Prosecutor General, at which they introduced the media; naturally, they inquired about one of the resonant issues – the fate of Alovatshoev. Yusuf Rahmon, Prosecutor General, replied that he had been on the wanted list for four years and a criminal case had been initiated against him. To the question of what exactly Alovatshoev is accused of, the Prosecutor General didn’t answer. He only confirmed that this native of GBAO was extradited from Russia to Tajikistan.

An hour later, a press conference was held by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, at which the head of the department, Ramazon Rakhimzoda, answering a question about the fate of Alovatshoev, said that “he voluntarily returned to his homeland” and he was immediately detained at the airport on charges of organizing protests in Khorog in 2018.

In November 2021, Amriddin Alovatshoev also actively participated in a protest action by natives of Gorno-Badakhshan near the Embassy of Tajikistan in the Russian capital, demanding that those responsible for the murder of their countryman Gulbiddin Ziyobekov in GBAO be held responsible. Relatives say that Amriddin is being persecuted precisely because of this campaign.

In past years, cases of the disappearance of Tajik oppositionists and activists in Russia and the “mysterious appearance” in Tajikistan have already taken place. Let’s recall some of them.

In March 2021, human rights activist Izzat Amon disappeared in Russia and mysteriously appeared in Tajikistan, where he was immediately detained. In October last year, he was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of fraud.

The leader of the Europe-based opposition movement “For reforms and development of Tajikistan”, Sharofiddin Gadoev, unexpectedly appeared in Dushanbe in February 2019. His fate was predetermined if the Western countries hadn’t stood up for him, demanding the immediate release of Gadoev. Returning to the Netherlands, the oppositionist said that he was abducted in Moscow, where he flew from Europe to meet with high-ranking Russian security officials, and forcibly taken to Tajikistan.

In 2015, the leader of the youth organization “Youth for the revival of Tajikistan”, founded in Russia, Maksud Ibragimov, disappeared in Moscow. Later he turned up in Dushanbe, where he was accused of extremism and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The clergyman Saidkiyomiddin Gozi, famous in the year of the civil war, was arrested in St. Petersburg in 2017 and was taken to Tajikistan under mysterious circumstances. At home, he was sentenced to 25 years (Gozi was killed during a prison riot in May 2019).

Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, the ex-leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, disappeared in Moscow in December 2003, and then revealed in Dushanbe, in a pre-trial detention center. In 2005, Iskandarov was sentenced to 23 years in prison. In 2011, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg recognized the extradition of Mahmadruzi Iskandarov from Russia as illegal, accusing the Russian side of facilitating and participating in the abduction of Iskandarov and his illegal extradition to Tajikistan.