A resident of the southern Khatlon province has got a lengthy jail term for sympathizing with extremists.in social media.
The Khatlon regional court has sentenced the resident of the Vakhsh district, Alijon Sharipov, to 9 1.2 years in prison. The sentence has followed his conviction on charges of disseminating extremist ideas through social networks.
A source at the Khatlon regional court says the 32-year-old Alijon Sharipov was downloading videos about Muhiddin Kabiri, the leader of the banned Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), and the mutinous general Abduhalim Nazarzoda, while working in Russia as labor migrant. Sharipov then distributed those videos among his virtual friends, the source added.
Sharipov was detained by law enforcement officers in his native village of Mehrobod in the Vakhsh district in January this year.
Recall, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan this year has put IRPT leader Muhiddin Kabiri on trial in absentia.
Charges against Muhiddin Kabiri reportedly include terrorism and involvement in what the government says was an armed attempt to seize power, led by mutinous former Deputy Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda, in September 2015.
In 2017, Tajikistan amended legislation to let courts try and sentence suspects in absentia.
Founded in October 1990, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan was the only Islamic party officially registered in former Soviet Central Asia. The IRPT was registered on December 4, 1991. It was banned by the Supreme Court in June 1993 and legalized in August 1999.
Since 1999, the party had reportedly been the second-largest party in Tajikistan after the ruling People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
In the 2005 and 2010 parliamentary elections, the IRPT won two out of 63 seats in the parliament, but the party suffered a crushing defeat in Tajikistan’s March 2015 vote, failing to clear the 5 percent threshold needed to win parliament seats.
Tajikistan’s Supreme Court banned the Islamic Revival Party as terrorist group on September 29, 2015 on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office. The Supreme Court ruled that the IRPT should be included on a blacklist of extremist and terrorist organizations. The verdict forces the closure of the IRPT’s official newspaper Najot and bans the distribution of any video, audio, or printed materials related to the party’s activities.
Party leader Muhiddin Kabiri, who now is in self-imposed exile abroad, denies any wrongdoing or involvement in the violence.
