Tajik opposition activist and journalist Farhod Odinayev says he will seek political asylum in the European Union after learning the authorities intend to arrest him if he returns home.
Odinayev told Radio Liberty by phone on November 10 that he was currently in Germany on a one-year visa after Belarusian authorities freed him last week and rejected a Tajik request to extradite him.
Odinayev added that before his arrest in Belarus, he did not know that Tajikistan was seeking his extradition and that he understands now how dangerous it would be for him to travel to post-Soviet republics.
Odinayev was detained by Belarusian migration officials on September 25 while on his way to the Polish capital, Warsaw, to attend a human rights conference.
Rights group Human Constanta in Belarus said in October that Odinayev risked torture or other ill-treatment if extradited to Tajikistan.
Eleven international human rights groups had urged Belarusian authorities not to extradite Odinayev to Tajikistan.
Odinayev, who holds Tajik and Russian passports, used to belong to the banned Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT) and for several months in 2013 led Safo TV, an opposition television channel based in Moscow.
The channel was shut down by Russian authorities the same year.
The IRPT was labeled an extremist and terrorist group and banned in 2015. Dozens of IRPT officials and supporters have been prosecuted and many of them imprisoned.
