KHUJAND, May 15, 2009, Asia-Plus — Seven members of the outlawed religious extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir organization in northern Tajikistan have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from three to ten years.
The Khujand city court on May 14 ruled that seven members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, including Murodjon Rustamov, Bahriddin Ashourov, Abduvalijon Kholmurzyaev, Ahajon Ismoilov, Poulodboy Rustamov, Rustamjon Hojiboyev and Khurshedjon Yuldoshev, be given jail terms ranging from three to ten years and that they should serve them in a high-security penal colony.
According Iso Tavakkalov, a judge with the Khujand city court, the sentence followed their conviction on charges of organizing criminal grouping, inciting national racial, regional or religious enmity as well as calling for forcible overthrow of or change to the constitutional order in Tajikistan.
They are also barred from being members of religious organizations during five years after serving their terms, the judge said.
He noted that those activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir were detained by local police last September.
We will recall that the Supreme Court on March 11, 2008 formally labeled the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir group as an “extremist organization.”
The ruling followed a request submitted to the court by the prosecutor-general’s office. Although the group has been outlawed in Tajikistan since April 2001, the ruling means even tighter restrictions on the group”s presence on the Internet and its use of media to promote its ideology. Hizb ut-Tahrir reportedly seeks to establish a global caliphate, or Islamic society, although it purports to reject violence in pursuit of its goals.
