A statement released by Amnesty International (AI) on October 4 says that Tajik human rights lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence on politically motivated grounds, is allegedly being subjected to regular beatings – accompanied by threats, insults and harassment – by officials at the detention center. Buzurgmehr Yorov continues to be at serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment, according to the statement.
The statement says that the Tajikistani authorities on September 27, allowed the mother of Buzurgmehr Yorov to visit him at pre-trial detention center # 1 (SIZO) in Dushanbe, where he is currently held. During the meeting, Buzurgmehr Yorov reportedly told his mother that the detention center guards subjected him and other cellmates to regular beatings to the head and other parts of the body, using their legs, arms and batons. These have intensified in the past month. As a result of the beatings, Buzurgmehr Yorov was transferred to the detention center hospital for treatment. After several days, he was taken back to his cell. He told his mother that the beatings are accompanied by insults, humiliation and threats, according to the statement.
In an interview to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on October 4, the head of the SIZO said that Buzurgmehr Yorov has been held in solitary confinement since September 29, which he claimed was in response to Buzurgmehr Yorov’s ‘violation of the regime of detention’. It is unclear what this ‘violation’ is in reference to. This is at least the fourth time Buzurgmehr Yorov has been put in solitary confinement. In an interview to RFE/RL on September 28, the head of the SIZO denied all allegations of torture and other ill-treatment against Buzurgmehr Yorov.
Recall, Buzurgmehr Yorov, who had been representing several co-defendants in the case against the banned Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan’s (IRPT), was arrested by police on September 28, 2015 on fraud and forgery charges, unrelated to his role in the IRPT case. Shortly afterwards, additional extremism related-charges were brought against him, and in October 2016 the Dushanbe City Court sentenced Buzurgmehr Yorov to 23 years. Since then, a further three cases were instigated against him on charges of fraud, “disrespecting” the court, insulting government officials and insulting “the leader of the Nation”, and sentenced to an additional five years in prison.
