Tajikistan: mother of famous blogger is illegally detained at police station

Relatives of Shokhida Makhmadzhonova, the mother of Sherzod Makhmadzhonov (a well-known Tajik blogger who lives in Germany and maintains his YouTube channel under the nickname Abdurahmon 09), claim that she was summoned on February 3 to the police department in the city of Vakhdat and illegally detained there.

According to the journalists of Radio Ozodi, who were the first to report this egregious case of violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens, law enforcement agencies refuse to comment on this case. In the city court, they were told that they had not been approached for a sanction for the arrest or detention of Shokhida Makhmadzhonova.

On February 4, Sherzod Makhmadzhonov told journalists that in January his mother was twice summoned to the regional department of the Organized Crime Control Department for the city of Vakhdat. The OCCD officers demanded that Makhmadzhonova force Sherzod to return to Dushanbe and “repent” before the authorities, and then he would allegedly be amnestied. “But I am not a criminal and have not committed any crimes,” Sherzod says.

The young blogger is known for his criticism of the authorities of Tajikistan for their persecution of women wearing Muslim headdresses, as well as for men wearing beards.

“Three weeks ago, officers of the Police Department of Vakhdat took away my mother’s phone. And on February 2, they called and said to come the next day and pick up her phone. Yesterday, my mother went to the Internal Affairs Department and never came back. It’s been 30 hours since she left, but we have no news of her. My father went to the Police Department, but he was told that his mother wasn’t there,” Sherzod told reporters.

The authorities began to put pressure on the blogger’s family two years ago. In early 2020, his mother was fired from the city hospital in the city of Vakhdat, and in early 2021, the Minister of Internal Affairs named Sherzod a member of the Islamic Renaissance Party, which is banned in Tajikistan, although both Sherzod and the IRPT leadership deny his involvement in this party.

Sherzod is sure that his mother was detained only because of his activity on YouTube and criticism of the authorities of Tajikistan for the systemic violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens.

Experts believe that Sherzod is saved from persecution only by the fact that he is in Germany, where the authorities of Tajikistan have “short hands”. “If he were in Russia, they would have put a bag over his head long time ago and how Izzat Amon or Amriddin Alovatshoev would have been illegally taken to Tajikistan,” said one of the employees of a human rights organization, also under pressure from the Tajik authorities, on condition of anonymity.

Dismissals, interrogations, surveillance, open and anonymous threats… This is how the well-known media Deutsche Welle characterizes the actions of the authorities of Tajikistan against dissidents, “The authorities of /wp range of repressive measures in an attempt to intimidate the relatives of citizens of the country objectionable to the authorities. Dushanbe is targeting not only opposition politicians, but also journalists and lawyers.” Now you can add bloggers to this list.