QURGHON TEPPA, May 6, 2010, Asia-Plus — A trial of 36 followers of Jamaati Tabligh, a Sunni missionary group, is nearing completion in Khatlon province.
The Khatlon regional court is considering criminal proceedings instituted against them. They face charges of organization of activity of an extremist organization (Article 307 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).
The prosecutor in trial has requested that the court sentence them to jail terms of between 5 and 8 years.
Criminal proceedings against these 36 followers of Jamaati Tabligh were instituted on April 16, 2009 and the trail began on December 2, 2009.
We will recall that 56 followers of Jamaati Tabligh were convicted in Dushanbe in early March this year. Tajikistan. The Supreme Court on March 5 ruled that 23 of them be given jail terms of between 3 and 6 years, while the remaining 33 persons be fined in an amount of 1,000 to 2,000 accounts indices (for this year, the government has determined the accounts index at 35.00 somoni).
Dozens followers of Jamaati Tabligh were detained in a mosque in Dushanbe in April 2009. The same month, several members of this group were detained in Khatlon’s Baljuvon and Bokhatar districts as well as the city of Qurghon Teppa, the capital of Khatlon province.
In January 2006, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan banned Jamaati Tabligh together with other nine organizations as extremist on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
