Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says Tajik authorities have detained on unspecified charges the nephew of Mahmurod Odinayev, the deputy chairman of the opposition Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT) who is also being held by authorities.
Odinayev's relatives told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service on December 15 that Zulfiqor Odinayev had been detained 10 days earlier and is being kept in a detention center in the city of Hisor, adding that neither he nor his uncle had been provided with lawyers yet.
They added that Zulfiqor Odinayev, an aide to his uncle, has yet to be charged and that they have been given no official information on what charges he may be facing.
Recall, the deputy leader of the SDPT Mahmurod Odinayev, 58, who has been on missing since November 20, was detained in Dushanbe on December 5 and brought under convoy to Hisor.
According to a statement released by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, Odinayev together with his wife Mehrinigor Rizoyeva and their son Habibullo Odinayev on October 29 came to the military registration and enlistment office in Hisor and noted that their son had been drafted into the army illegally. And they deliberately disturbed public order, according to the statement.
The Hisor prosecutor-general’s office on November 20 instituted criminal proceedings against Mahmurod Odinayev under provisions of Article 237 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – hooliganism committed by a group of people by prior conspiracy, with resistance to government officials or to other persons charged with the responsibility of maintaining public order; an investigation is under way.
SDPT leader Rahmatillo Zoyirov told Asia-Plus that he was contacted by Mahmurod Odinayev one day before the reported arrest. “He told me that he was being persecuted for his convictions and that he was forced to flee when law enforcement officials came looking for him,” Zoyirov said.
