A court in Greece has denied an extradition request from the Tajik authorities for a member of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT)’s political council, Shohnaim Karim, also known as Mirzorahim Kuzov, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher Steve Swerdlow.
In a ruling handed down on November 29 a court in Athens denied Tajikistan extradition request for the return of Mirzorahim Kuzov.
According to HRW, Kuzov was detained in Greece under an Interpol “red notice” submitted by Tajikistan.
Recall, Mirzorahim Kuzov was detained at the Athens airport late on October 9 while en route from Warsaw to Tehran after attending a conference organized by the OSCE.
HRW researcher Steve Swerdlow told Al Jazeera on October 20 that “Greek authorities have an obligation under international law not to return him to Tajikistan where he faces the real possibility of torture and imprisonment on trumped-up charges.”
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.
