A prosecutor in the trial of the deputy head of the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT), Mahmourod Odinayev, asked a court in Roudaki district on January 27 to sentence Odinayev to a 15-year prison term.
Recall, Mahmourod Odinayev faces charges of 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.(Article 237 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) and public calls for extremist activity or public justification of extremism.( Article 307 (1) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).
Shokirjon Hakimov, the deputy head of the SDPT, notes that the trial is being held behind closed doors and he does not know “to what an extent the prosecution's argumentation is substantiated.”
Extremism charges were filed against Mahmourod Odinayev on January 15.
SDPT leader Rahmatillo Zoyirov says his repeated attempts to meet with Mahmourod Odinayev in the pretrial detention facility remain in vain. The prosecutor’s office reportedly justifies the refusal by saying that Odinayev was detained not as party functionary but as ordinary citizen. Therefore, only Odinayev’s relatives can meet with him, but not SDPT leaders.
Mahmourod Odinayev, 58, who had been on missing since November 20, was reportedly detained in Dushanbe on December 5.
According to the authorities, he allegedly conducted an act of hooliganism in a military draft office in Hisor in late October, where prosecutors say he confronted officials over the conscription of his son Habibullo.
The Hisor prosecutor’s office on November 20 instituted criminal proceedings against Mahmourod 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.
According to SDPT leader, Odinayev contacted him on December 4, the day before his arrest. “He told me that he was being persecuted for dissent and he was forced to flee when law enforcement officers came for him to home,” Zoyirov said.
