Tajikistan: Civic activist was sentenced to 18 years in prison
The first court session concerning the case of Amriddin Alovatshoev (the leader of Badakhshan’s youth in Moscow who was forcibly returned from Russia) began on April 29 in the afternoon in Dushanbe. By evening, the sentence was passed – 18 years in prison.
The trial was held in an “open-closed mode” in the pre-trial detention center (the court was declared open, but it was held in the building of the pre-trial detention center, which is a closed facility. So, permission from the court and the penitentiary institution is required to participate in the trial).
According to the relatives of the defendant, even they were not allowed to the trial, not to mention journalists and representatives of civil society. “They didn’t let the lawyers in either. They were informed late about the beginning of process, and when they drove up to the pre-trial detention center, they were told that the process was already underway and they were not allowed to enter. We think it was done intentionally,” said one of Alovatshoev’s relatives.
It’s reported that there are several articles in the case of Alovatshoev, of which only two are known – hostage-taking and unlawful deprivation of freedom.
Amriddin Alovatshoev was detained on the territory of the Russian Federation and forcibly returned to Tajikistan, presumably on January 12, 2022. Only on February 2, the country’s authorities officially extradited the activist. At a press conference that day, Prosecutor General of Tajikistan Yusuf Rahmon confirmed that Alovatshoev had been extradited from Russia at the request of the authorities of Tajikistan in connection with a criminal case against him. However, no additional information was provided. On the same day, during a press conference, Shodi Hafizzoda, head of the Department for Combating Organized Crime under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said that a criminal case had been opened against Alovatshoev for taking a hostage and a number of other crimes. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ramazon Rakhimzoda, answering a question about the fate of Alovatshoev, noted that ‘he voluntarily returned to his homeland’ and he was immediately detained at the airport on charges of organizing protests in Khorog in 2018.
According to Alovatshoev’s relatives, unidentified people pursued Amriddin after he actively participated in a protest action by people from Gorno-Badakhshan in November 2021 near the Embassy of Tajikistan in Moscow, demanding that those responsible for the murder of their countryman Gulbiddin Ziyobekov in GBAO be held accountable. Relatives say that Amriddin paid precisely for his active civic position.
