DUSHANBE, October 17, 2014, Asia-Plus – Two minors, age 15 and 16, were detained in Dushanbe on October 16 on suspicion of writing antigovernment slogans on buildings, the Interior Ministry’s official website reported on October 17.
On September 28 and 29, the minors wrote antigovernment slogans with spray paints on apartment buildings on the Lomonosov Street and on the bridge near the Navrouzgoh Complex, and thereby, they demonstrated their participation in the banned Group 24 movement, the website said.
Material evidences — the spray paint can and Iphone 5 mobile phone — were reportedly confiscated from them.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted and an investigation is under way, the website noted.
We will recall that the Supreme Court of Tajikistan banned the Group 24 opposition movement on October 9 as extremist on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
The Supreme Court judge, Ms. Salomat Hakimova, ruled that Group 24, which is led by fugitive Tajik businessman Umarali Quvvatov, is ‘extremist’ and therefore is banned in Tajikistan. Its website and printed materials were also banned.
The October 9 decision followed growing government pressure on the opposition group after it used the Internet to call for a mass antigovernment protest in downtown Dushanbe on October 10.
Hundreds of websites were blocked in Tajikistan on October 5 after Group 24’s online calls for the antigovernment protest. The public protest never took place. The websites were unblocked on October 13; officials at the communications service agency, however, said they had nothing to do with the Internet blockage.
Umarali Quvvatov first made headlines in the summer of 2012 when he fled Tajikistan for Moscow. There he formed an organization called Group 24, which he claims is a new political movement opposed to incumbent President Rahmon.
Quvvatov was arrested in Dubai on December 23, 2012 at the request of Tajik authorities. He is accused of illegally obtaining about $1.2 million through fraudulent business activities. Quvvatov denounced the fraud case against him and accused Tajik President Emomali Rahmon of running a “totalitarian regime.” In an open letter smuggled out of the detention center, Umarali Quvvatov said the accusations leveled against him were “a direct consequence” of his battle against the “oppression of the Tajik people” by Rahmon”s government. Quvvatov was released from the detention center in Dubai on September 26, 2013 and according to some sources he is currently in Turkey.
