Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reports that activists from the Tajik opposition movement Group 24 said on April 24 that police in Italy detained the movement's eight members a day earlier.
According to the Group 24, Tajik opposition activists from the EU countries gathered in Rome to take part in a rally challenging policies of the Tajik President Emomali Rahmon during his ongoing official visit to Italy.
Hussein Ashourov, the acting head of Group 24, says those eight members of the movement were detained by Italian police near the Quirinal Palace on April 23, where they were waiting for Emomali Rahmon to come out.
Recall, Group 24's founder, Umarali Quvatov, was assassinated in Istanbul, Turkiye in March 2015.
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, 2014.
The Supreme Court ruled that Group 24 is an extremist organization, and therefore, it is banned in Tajikistan. Its website and printed materials were also banned.
