KHUJAND, July 15, 2011, Asia-Plus — The BBC reporter Urunboy Usmonov was released from Khujand pretrial detention facility # 2 Thursday evening.
Usmonov’s son, Oybek, told Asia-Plus that they took him from the Sughd prosecutor’s office yesterday evening. At present Urunboy Usmonov is at home but he still refrains from meeting journalists.
Urunboy Usmonov suffers from diabetes and has a heart condition. Oybek says his father has grown thin and looks tired. “We are going to show him to doctors for thorough medical examination,” he noted.
We will recall that the Prosecutor-General’s Office yesterday changed a measure of restraint for the BBC reporter Urunboy Usmonov who was taken into custody one month ago.
Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda told Asia-Plus by phone Thursday afternoon that he has signed an order for Usmonov”s release on condition that he does not leave the city of Khujand, the capital of the northern Sughd province.
“Prosecutors have studied a criminal case against Usmonov and come to the conclusion that it can continue conducting the case without keeping the accused in custody,” Salimzoda said.
In the meantime, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports that before he was released, Usmonov told RFE/RL”s Tajik Service correspondent Khiromon Bakoeva by phone that he was “very happy” to be regaining his freedom but not surprised at the turn of events. “I believed in the justice of Tajikistan”s leaders,” he said. “I am sure that Tajikistan is building a democratic secular state. That is why [my release] was not unexpected for me.” He reportedly spoke only briefly, saying he had been instructed not to give interviews.
Urunboy Usmonov, 60, was detained on June 13 and accused of belonging to the banned Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he denies. Investigators have since dropped two initial charges. They had originally accused Usmonov of being a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and of making “public calls to forcibly change the constitutional system of Tajikistan.” The journalist is being charged with failing to report the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir group to the Tajik law enforcement authorities.
On July 12, Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda told reporters in Dushanbe that the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s office in Sughd province had completed its investigation against Usmonov and sent the case to the Sughd regional prosecutor”s office for review. He also said that he had asked the SCNS to send a summary of the case to President Emomali Rahmon.
Urunboy Usmonov has worked for the BBC for about 10 years.
According to RFE/RL, in a statement, the BBC World Service said it was “delighted” at his release. BBC Global News Director Peter Horrocks said, “We are encouraged that Tajik authorities have considered our appeals. As we have said all along we believe Urunboy is innocent and all he was doing was his journalistic work for the BBC.”
RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports Tajikistan”s Ambassador to Austria Nouriddin Shamsov sent a letter on July 14 to the Vienna-based Representative for Freedom of the Media with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Dunja Mijatovic, in which he reinforced Dushanbe”s view on the limits of journalists” rights. “Media workers and journalists who perform their duties in a responsible and professional manner and in compliance with the national legislation do not experience any kind of problems in their daily activity,” he said, adding that prosecutions of journalists who have been detained “are taking place openly and transparently and based on rule of law.”
