DUSHANBE, March 4, 2015, Asia-Plus — A court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district sentenced Umedjon Solehov to 17½ years in prison on March 4.
He was charged with calling for extremist actions, insulting the president, and membership in the Tajik opposition organization Group 24.
The court also ruled that Umedjon Solehov cannot be involved in any business activities for five years after serving his jail term.
The court’s ruling was nearly identical to the prosecution’s earlier demand for 18-year prison term.
Judge Hotam Rajabzoda, who presided over the trial, noted that Solehov together with Group 24 leader Umarali Quvvatov and opposition journalist Dodojon Atovullo was engaged in publishing extremist materials on social networks such as Facebook and Odnoklassniki and a video-sharing website YouTube, calling on youth to join their criminal group.
We will recall that Solehov was arrested in October last year after he was seen in an online video of a gathering by Tajik migrant workers in Russia, calling on Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to resign.
Meanwhile, Solehov insisted that he had never been a member of the Group 24.
The organization called Group 24 was formed by Tajik fugitive businessman Umarali Quvvatov in Moscow in 2012.
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.
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 an extremist organization, and therefore is banned in Tajikistan. Its website and printed materials were also banned.
On December 19, 2014, Umarali Quvvatov was detained in Istanbul, Turkey. He was freed from the Istanbul detention facility on February 3 this year.
