DUSHANBE, February 14, 2011, Asia-Plus – The daughter of an elderly Tajik man being held for links to terrorists has asked the parliament speaker to intervene in his case, RFE/RL”s Tajik Service reported on February 13.
Shahodat Davlatova tells RFE/RL she wants Shukurjon Zuhurov, the speaker of the lower house of parliament and her representative from the eastern Rasht district, to help gain the release of her 76-year-old father, Muzaffar Davlatov, who is in detention.
Davlatova said the authorities accused her father of having knowledge of terrorist activities but not informing security officials.
Davlatov is the father of Alovuddin Davlatov (Ali Bedaki), a militant leader who was accused of killing dozens of Tajik soldiers in an ambush last autumn.
Officials said Ali Bedaki was killed on January 4 during a military operation in the Rasht village of Runob. But a video of him allegedly taken by government forces and circulated among the public a few weeks ago suggests Bedaki had been detained by security forces and interrogated before he was killed.
Tajik Interior Ministry spokesman Mahmadullo Asadulloyev told RFE/RL on February 10 Muzaffar Davlatov, Bedaki”s father, was charged with membership in an organized criminal group, weapons possession, and not informing the authorities about the terrorist activities of his son.
But Muzaffar Davlatov”s lawyer, Urunboy Bobosherov, told RFE/RL on February 10 that military prosecutors had only accused his client of not informing the authorities about his son”s terrorist activities.
Bobosherov said his client had tried to stop his son from fighting government forces, but his son did not listen to him.
Bedaki”s brother, Husnuddin Davlatov, was arrested in Rasht in mid-September and charged with buying weapons for his brother”s militant group.
Husnuddin Davlatov, a former member of the Rasht local council and a former member of the Islamic Revival Party, was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison.
