In a report released at news conference in Dushanbe, Prosecutor-General Yusuf Rahmon noted on August 3 that the law enforcement authorities have not put any pressure upon families and relatives of members of outlawed organizations.
“Members of families, relatives and friends of members of terrorist and extremist organizations such as Group 24 and others will be summoned for questioning within the frameworks of criminal cases. But no pressure will be put upon them,” Tajik chief prosecutor noted.
Rahmon also noted that criminal proceedings had been instituted against all Tajik nationals fighting in Syria and Iraq alongside militants of the Islamic State terror group. “All of them have been put on the wanted list,” Rahmon added.
Recall, members of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) – along with representative from other Tajik organizations critical of the government, including Group-24, Vatandor and the Congress of Constructive Forces of Tajikistan – on July 9 held their first-ever congress outside the country, in the German city of Dortmund.
The conference in Dortmund was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of peace accords that formally ended Tajikistan’s 1992-1997 civil war.
During a meeting with reporters in Dushanbe, Sayfullo Safarov, the deputy head of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan, presidential Center for Strategic Studies, warned on July 10 that the coalescing of the opposition posed a danger to Tajikistan’s security. All Tajiks should be vigilant and resist the undertakings of the opposition, he said, and the authorities should act to quash the opposition’s efforts.
In a joint statement released on July 19, the two human rights watchdogs — Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) — said Tajik authorities publicly shamed the activists’ relatives, banned from leaving the country, and threatened to confiscate their property.
The statement, in particular, says that in one case, officials threatened to rape the daughter of an activist. “Activists provided details about 10 incidents in cities around the country that have been sanctioned by the Tajik government at the highest level. Tajik security services officers and local officials publicly shamed, banned from leaving the country, and threatened to confiscate the property of the activists’ relatives, and in one case threatened to rape an activist’s daughter,” the statement said.
According to the statement, the Islamic Revival Party (IRPT) activists provided detailed accounts to HRW and NHC about violations against their families committed by authorities between July 7 and July 10 in the capital, Dushanbe, and seven other villages and cities across the country. “In each case, security services officers explicitly linked their visits and abusive actions to the participation of the people’s relatives in a peaceful political conference in Dortmund, Germany,” the statement said.
HRW and NHC called on the United States, the European Union, and other international partners to urgently address “the growing pattern of retaliatory attacks in Tajikistan.”
