“I am not an extremist, I am a lawyer,” the human rights lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov said at his trial in Dushanbe on September 27.
He has denied all charges brought against him as absolutely baseless.
Yorov noted that he had agreed to defend members of the banned Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) in trial not because of sympathizing with the party but in line of his professional duty.
The trial has been carried out behind closed doors and only relatives of the defendants – the human rights lawyers Buzurgmehr Yorov and Nouriddin Mahkamov – have been allowed to attend the trial.
Recall that prosecutor has called for lengthy prison sentences against two human rights lawyers.
The prosecutor in the trial of Buzurgmehr Yorov, the lawyer who was working on the case of several leading members and activists of the banned Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), and Nouriddin Mahkamov, the lawyer who was going to represent Mahkamov but he was refused defense warrant, asked the court on September 19 to sentence Buzurgmehr Yorov to a 25-year prison and Nouriddin Mahkamov to a 23-year prison term.
Prosecutor Rustam Taqdirzoda accused Buzurgmehr Yorov of inciting regional and religious enmity, public calls for the forcible overthrow of or change to the constitutional order in Tajikistan, public calls for carrying out extremist activity, fraud and document forgery.
Nouriddin Mahkamov faces charges of inciting regional and religious enmity, fraud, public calls for the forcible overthrow of or change to the constitutional order in Tajikistan and public calls for carrying out extremist activity.
Buzurgmehr Yorov, who is the head of the law firm Sipar, was arrested on September 29, 2015 and Nouriddin Mahkamov, who is also from the Sipar law firm, was arrested in late October 2015.
Their case moved to a court on April 5 and it has been classified as “secret.” The trial began on May 5.
International human rights groups say Yorov was arrested in retaliation for representing 13 members of the opposition Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). The government banned the party in August last year and declared it a terrorist organization on September 29, 2015.
In a statement released on October 7, 2015, six international human rights groups urged the Tajik authorities to release or present credible and internationally recognizable charges against Buzurgmehr Yorov and Nouriddin Mahkamov.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) last week urged the Tajik authorities to release four lawyers and two sons of another lawyer. The human rights watchdogs noted in their statement that at least five lawyers – Shuhrat Qudratov, Fakhriddin Zokirov, Buzurgmehr Yorov, Nouriddin Mahkamov and Dilbar Dodojonova – as well as two sons of Tajik known lawyer Ishoq Tabarov – Firouz Tabarov and Daler Tabarov – have been arrested in Tajikistan over the past couple of years and only Fakhriddin Zokirov have been released after a two-year prison.
