Said Ibrohim Nazar, former adviser to the leader of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), who had been to Iran since August 2015, returned to Tajikistan at the end of last week, an official source at the Tajik law enforcement authorities told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon.
According to him, Said Ibrohim Nazar had nothing to do with an armed mutiny that took place in Tajikistan in mid-September 2015.
“Said Ibrohim Nazar that time was in Iran and had no contacts with the Islamic Revival Party,” the source said, noting that Said Ibrohim Nazar walked away from the Islamic Revival Party after the last parliamentary elections that took place in Tajikistan in March 2015.
He further added that there are no reasons for the arrest of Said Ibrohim Nazar.
Meanwhile, Said Ibrohim Nazar was fined 60,000 somoni in May 2015 for polygamy.
Recall, Said Ibrohim Nazar was shown on Tajik national TV channels on May 27, 2015 and he confirmed that he had two wives.
Besides, a video posted on social networks and showing intimate details of his relationship with a woman who was not his wife was shown. Said Nazar Ibrohim confirmed authenticity of the video.
Said Nazar Ibrohim confirmed authenticity of the video.
Tajik authorities branded the IPRT a terrorist group and banned it in 2015, claiming it organized an armed mutiny along with former Defense Minister Abdulhalim Nazarzoda in September of that year an attempt to seize power. Nazarzoda and several supporters were killed by Tajik security forces.
Tajikistan’s Supreme Court ruled that the IRP should be included on a blacklist of extremist and terrorist organizations.
The verdict handed down on September 29, 2015 forces the closure of the IRPT’s official newspaper Najot (Salvation) and bans the distribution of any video, audio, or printed materials related to the party’s activities.
More than 12 leading IRPT members and lawyers for the party were convicted of involvement in organizing the mutiny and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2016. IRPT members and the party leader Muhiddin Kabiri, who now lives in exile, reject the accusations.
Founded in October 1990, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan is the only Islamic party officially registered in former Soviet Central Asia. The IRP was registered on December 4, 1991. It was banned by the Supreme Court in June 1993 and legalized in August 1999.
Since 1999, the party had reportedly been the second-largest party in Tajikistan after the ruling People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
Once the only registered Islamic political party in any of the five Central Asia’s nations, the IRPT was represented in the Tajik parliament for 15 years. In the 2005 and 2010 parliamentary elections, the IRPT won two out of 63 seats in the parliament, but the party suffered a crushing defeat in Tajikistan’s March 1, 2015 vote, failing to clear the 5 percent threshold needed to win parliament seats.
