QURGHON TEPPA, July 13, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Khatlon regional prosecutor’s office has instituted four criminal proceedings against 46 alleged followers of Jamaat ut-Tabligh, a Sunni missionary group, the Khatlon prosecutor Abdurahim Rahimov announced at a press conference in Qurghon Teppa on July 10.
According to him, criminal proceedings have been instituted against them under the provisions of articles 307¹ (public calling for forcible overthrow of or change to the constitutional order in Tajikistan) and 307² (setting up extremist group) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code. The prosecutor said that 23 of those accused were currently held in the pretrial detention facility while 23 others had been released after having given a written undertaking not to leave a place.
We will recall that Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on April 28 this year that the Khatlon police directorate chief said several members of Islamic Jamaat ut-Tabligh had been detained in the Bokhtar and Baljuvon districts and the city of Qurghon-Teppa. He didn”t say how many were arrested, but told RFE/RL”s Tajik Service that most of the detained were released soon after their detention.
In a report released at a press conference in Dushanbe, Minister of Interiors Abdurahim Qahhorov revealed on April 21 that dozens of followers of Jamaat ut-Tabligh were detained in a mosque in Dushanbe in mid-April. According to him, most of them were released after being interrogated and criminal proceedings were instituted only against four followers of this group under the provisions of Article 187 of Tajikistan Penal Code – setting up criminal group. Those four persons have taken special training in India and the United Arab Emirates (UEA), the minister said.
