KHUJAND, April 10, 2015, Asia-Plus — Five residents of the northern province of Sughd, aged 35 to 42, have been jailed again for membership in the outlawed religious extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The Khujand cit court sentenced three residents of Khujand, one resident of Chkalovsk and one resident of Isfara to jail terms ranging from 3 to 3 ½ years on April 9.
The sentence followed their conviction on charges of organizing an activity of an extremist group (Article 307 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).
An official source at the Khujand city court says the convicts are activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir and they were detained on November 6, 2014. According to him, they have previous convictions for a similar crime.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is a Sunni political organization that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate.
The Supreme Court of Tajikistan formally labeled the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamist group as an extremist organization on March 11, 2008. The ruling followed a request submitted to the court by Tajik chief prosecutor. 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.
