DUSHANBE, February 4, 2015, Asia-Plus – Umarali Quvvatov, the leader of the Tajik opposition organization Group 24, has reportedly been freed from the Istanbul detention facility.
His wife, Qumrinisso Jabborova, wrote on Facebook that her husband was freed in the morning of February 3.
We will recall that Umarali Quvvatov was detained in Istanbul on December 19, 2014.
Nadezhda Atayeva, the head of the Association of Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), on December 20 called on Turkey to fulfill its international commitments to human rights, provide the four men with defense lawyers, and allow their meeting with representatives of the UN refugee agency.
Tajik Prosecutor-General Office accuses Mr. Quvvatov of embezzling 6 million somoni (equivalent to more than 1.26 million U.S. dollars) while Quvvatov says the accusations leveled against him are politically motivated.
The Association for Human Rights in Central Asia calls on the Turkish authorities to fulfill their international commitments to human rights, provide Umarali Quvvatov and his associates Husein Ashourov, Suhrob Tourayev and Abdurahsid Homidov with defense lawyers, and allow their meeting with representatives of the UN refugee agency.
AHRCA has also sent information about the detention of Umarali Quvvatov and his associates to the Turkish MFA, UNHCR Office in Turkey, the UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva, Amnesty International (AI) and other international human rights watchdogs.
Tajikistan”s Supreme Court banned Group 24 on October 9, 2014 following growing government pressure on the opposition group after it used the Internet to call for street protests in the capital, Dushanbe, on October 10.
Supreme Court judge Salomat Hakimova ruled that Group 24 is “extremist” and therefore is banned in Tajikistan. Its website and printed materials were also banned.
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.
On December 23, 2012, Quvvatov was arrested in Dubai at the request of Tajik authorities. He has been 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.
