Tajikistan: Persecution of relatives of the founder of the banned IRPT is in full swing

Relatives of the founder of the Islamic Renaissance Party, banned in Tajikistan, Said Abdullo Nuri, reported that one of his grandsons was detained during a raid (illegal detention and forced conscription into the army).

21-year-old Khabibullo Saidov, one of Nuri’s grandchildren, is a third-year student at the university in Bokhtar. His relatives reported that on April 23, police officers detained him, and under the pretext that he was allegedly expelled from the university, they took him to the local military commissariat.

“However, Khabibullo wasn’t expelled from the university at the time of his arrest,” say relatives of Said Abdullo Nuri who received asylum in Germany. “According to the law, full-time students of a higher educational institution are entitled to a deferment from military service.”

According to them, Khabibullo is the only breadwinner in the family after his father Nusratullo Saidov, Nuri’s nephew, was detained on suspicion of ‘receiving financial assistance from abroad’.

In addition, relatives don’t know anything about the fate of 64-year-old Nurullo Saidov, Nuri’s brother, and his nephew Mukhibullo Nuriddinov. Both were detained by security forces in Bokhtar and taken, presumably, to Dushanbe. However, the relevant ministries and departments of the capital reported that people with such names and surnames are not kept in closed institutions.

The authorities also suspect them of ‘receiving financial assistance from abroad’.

Since 2017, the National Bank of Tajikistan has been regularly updating the list of persons associated with terrorism. It contains the names of activists and members of banned parties and movements living abroad. Cooperation, including financial, with these per/wpp>