An 87-year-old man in Tajikistan has reportedly been handed a five-year prison sentence for supporting families of jailed opposition politicians.
Relatives of Doniyor Nabiyev told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on January 4 that the man was sentenced on December 28 after a court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district had found him guilty of “providing relatives of jailed members of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) with material support.”
A source in the Ismoili Somoni district court confirmed to RFE/RL that Nabiyev was convicted and sentenced in late December, but refused to give any details, saying that case materials were classified.
A former member of the IRPT, Mahmadi Teshayev, told RFE/RL that Nabiyev, who also used to be a party member in the past, had been arrested in September.
Nabiyev “has provided families of jailed IRPT members with food, such as meat and fruit during holidays. That is why he was detained and sent to prison,” Teshayev said.
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.
