Authorities in Tajikistan have reportedly filed criminal charges against sister and brother of the jailed human rights lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov.
Yorov’s sister, Khosiyat, told EurasiaNet.org that she and another brother, Jamshed, learned on May 29 that they face accusations of inciting the violent overthrow of the government. Jamshed Yorov and a former lawyer for the family, Muazamma Qodirova, have been hit with separate charges of incitement to ethnic and religious hatred. All three are currently outside Tajikistan.
Buzurgmehr Yorov was arrested in September 2015 on charges of fraud and forging documents only days after he agreed to represent leading members of the now-banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, who were accused of attempting to topple the government. Rights groups called the case “politically motivated.” In total, Yorov has been sentenced to serve 25 years in jail.
EurasiaNet.org says the Yorov siblings are under pressure to return to their homes country from Germany, where they are currently pursuing efforts to lodge their brother’s case in international rights tribunals.
“Jamshed’s wife is being kept in Tajikistan as a hostage. They will not let her leave the country. They have threatened her by saying that if she leaves, they will file charges against other members of her family,” Khosiyat Yorova told EurasiaNet.org.
In a separate development, Khosiyat Yorova said that international rights groups have pledged to translate an account by Buzurgmehr Yorov of his first 100 days in prison into English and Russia, so that it can be circulated more widely. Jamshed Yorov has said he is also spearheading an initiative to compile a list of names of children that he says are being de facto held hostage by Tajikistan’s authorities by being denied the right to leave the country.
The Firdavsi district court in Dushanbe is currently considering another case filed against Yorov for purportedly insulting President Emomali Rahmon. He is also being charged with another case of fraud. Guilty verdicts are a certainty, as is the addition of yet more years to Yorov’s sentence.
The plight of Tajikistan’s lawyers was the subject of a briefing earlier this month by Amnesty International, which has accused the country’s authorities of dealing “a major blow to the legal profession through political manipulation of the criminal justice system and repressive legislation.”
