Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office has instituted new criminal proceedings against the convicted human rights lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov
“New criminal proceedings have been instituted against Buzurgmehr under the provisions of Article 356 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – threat or forcible actions in regard to a judge, assessor, prosecutor, investigator, bailiff, advocate, expert, interpreter, employee of tax bodies,” Yorov’s sister, Khosiyat Yorova, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to her, the new criminal proceedings have been instituted following wrangle between her brother and prosecutor.
“In his last plea, Buzurgmehr was speaking about our brother Jamshed Yorov, who had earlier been detained and then released, and recited Mumin Qanoat’s verse “Barodaram” (My Brother). The wrangle occurred between Buzurgmehr and prosecutor when the latter demanded that Buzurgmehr speak in essence,” Khosiyat Yorova said.
Recall that the Dushanbe city court sentenced Buzurgmehr Yorov and Nouriddin Mahkamov to 23 and 21 years in prison respectively on October 6. They will serve their terms in a high-security penal colony.
The sentence followed their conviction on charges of inciting regional and religious enmity (Article 189 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code), public calls for the forcible overthrow of or change to the constitutional order in Tajikistan (Article 307), public calls for carrying out extremist activity (Article 307’), and fraud (Article 247). Buzurgmehr Yorov was also charged with document forgery (Article 340).
The lawyers are barred from practice for five years.
The court's ruling was nearly identical to the prosecution's earlier demand for a 25-year prison term for Buzurgmehr Yorov and a 21-year prison term for Nouriddin Mahkamov.
Yorov and Mahkamov pleaded not guilty and called their trial politically motivated.
Jamshed Yorov, Buzurgmehr Yorov’s brother and also one of the defense lawyers in the case against IRPT members (he was representing the IRPT deputy leader Mahmadali Hayit), was detained on August 22 on charges of “divulging state secrets” (Article 311 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan). He was accused of leaking the text of the Supreme Court’s decision in the case against the senior IRPT members which had been classified as a secret document. On August 26, a court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district ordered his remand in pretrial detention. On August 30, Jamshed Yorov was amnestied and released from detention.
