DUSHANBE, February 23, 2012, Asia-Plus – Seven residents of the northern Sughd province have been convicted for membership in the banned Sunni missionary group Jamaati Tabligh (also known as Jamaat ut-Tabligh or, Propagation Group).
A source at the Supreme Court of Tajikistan says the trial of seven members of the Jamaati Tabligh group ended in the Bobojonghafurov district recently. “All of them are residents of the Bobojonghafurov district aged 26 to 46 and they received sentenced of between three and five years,” he said.
The convicts do not agree with the sentences passed on them and plan to appeal against the sentences, the source added.
Followers of the Sunni missionary group Jamaati Tabligh are under pressure in Tajikistan, where authorities accuse the organization of trying to overthrow the country”s secular system in favor of an Islamic caliphate.
The group was declared extremist and its activities in Tajikistan banned in 2006, a charge that is vehemently rejected by followers, who say they are unfairly and routinely harassed by the authorities.
There were two large collective trials of members of Jamaati Tabligh in Tajikistan. In March 2009, 56 alleged members of the banned group were sentenced either to varying terms of imprisonment or a milder administrative punishment. And in May 2010, the Khatlon regional court sentenced 36 people to prison for being followers of Jamaati Tabligh. 17 of them received sentences of between five and 6 and 1/2 years. Nineteen others who were released on bail after their arrest were jailed for three years.
