The Supreme Court has put Muhiddin Kabiri, the leader of the outlawed Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), on trial in absentia, Shermuhammad Shohiyon, the head of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on February 1.
He refrained from giving details of charges brought against IRPT leader, noting that the case has been classified as “secret.”
Meanwhile, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says charges against Muhiddin Kabiri include terrorism and involvement in what the government says was an armed attempt to seize power, led by mutinous former Deputy Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda, in September 2015.
In 2017, Tajikistan amended legislation to let courts try and sentence suspects in absentia.
Last week, a court in the southern Khatlon province said it sentenced a former IRPT official to 15 years in prison after a trial in absentia, according to RFE/RL.
Muhiddin Kabiri, 52, became the head of the IRPT in 2006 and was elected twice to parliament in the Central Asian country. He left the country shortly after his party lost its two parliamentary seats in March 2015 elections.
Founded in October 1990, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan was the only Islamic party officially registered in former Soviet Central Asia. The IRPT 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.
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 2015 vote, failing to clear the 5 percent threshold needed to win parliament seats.
Tajikistan’s Supreme Court banned the Islamic Revival Party as terrorist group on September 29, 2015 on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office. The Supreme Court ruled that the IRPT should be included on a blacklist of extremist and terrorist organizations. The verdict forces the closure of the IRPT’s official newspaper Najot and bans the distribution of any video, audio, or printed materials related to the party’s activities.
Party leader Muhiddin Kabiri, who now is in self-imposed exile abroad, denies any wrongdoing or involvement in the violence.
