DUSHANBE, November 7, Asia-Plus – Members of the Democratic Party (DPT) headed by Mahmadruzi Iskandarov intend to convoke a meeting of the DPT managing board on Wednesday, November 8, Rahmatullo Valiyev, the former deputy chairman of the DPT, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
The party”s chairman, Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, is serving a 23-year jail sentence on terror-related charges that he denies.
According to Valiyev, they want to convoke the meeting in connection with the event of last Saturday, when Tajik security officers broke up a picket staged by the DPT organization for Dushanbe near the Ministry of Justice. The Iskandarov-run DPT intends to make statement on this event.
Valiyev said, “According to information I have, four activists of the party, including Rajab Mirzo, the head of the DPT organization for Dushanbe, Khairiddin Gulyayev, the deputy head of the DPT organization for Dushanbe, Timur Toshev, the brother of Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, and Yusuf Hotamov, were detained” said Valiyev, “They were sentenced to 15 days in jail for staging unauthorized rally.”
As it had been reported earlier, plainclothes security officers broke up an unauthorized rally staged by the Democratic Party (DPT) in Dushanbe on Saturday, two days before Tajikistan’s presidential election.
Several members of the DPT headed by the imprisoned Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, gathered near the Ministry of Justice on Saturday, November 4, at around 10:30 a.m. The picket was organized by the DPT organization for Dushanbe. The demonstrators demanded that the Ministry of Justice should cancel its decision to recognize Masoud Sobirov as an official leader of the DPT. Picketers carried placards “Law Is Above All” and “Tajikistan Is the Rule-of-Law State, in Which Law Should Be Above All.” A small group of people, including members from the Social-Democratic Party and the Mirhusein Narziyev-run wing of the Socialist Party, were standing nearby to support picketers.
The meeting lasted a couple of minutes and the demonstrators then disbursed, noting that the DPT will make a statement after the presidential election.
