Journalist and civil rights activist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoyeva, whom the authorities called one of organizers of last year’s protests in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region, or GBAO, and who got a lengthy jail term, has been transferred to a women’s penal colony in Nurek, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reported on May 11. Prior to that, she was reportedly held in the pretrial detention facility in Dushanbe.
According to the document seen by Radio Ozodi on May 11, “she was transferred to the penal colony in Nurek as the sentence came into force.”
Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoyeva, 66, was reportedly transferred to the women’s penal colony in Nurek on Saturday, May 6.
“Prior to that, relatives were on a visit with her in the pretrial detention facility, she did not complain about her health and she did not appeal her verdict,” a person, familiar with the journalist's case, told Radio Ozodi.
Recall, Tajikistan's Supreme Court sentenced noted journalist and civil rights activist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoyeva to 21 years in prison in early December last year on charges related to deadly May protests in GBAO, which rights watchdogs have called trumped-up.
Sources close to law enforcement structures told RFE/RL on December 9, 2022 that Mamadshoyeva was sentenced earlier in the week. The trial was held behind closed doors.
Radio Ozodi reported on December 9, 2022 that Mamadshoyeva and her former husband, Kholbash Kholbashov, were arrested in May and reportedly charged with publicly calling for the violent change of Tajikistan's constitutional order, organizing a criminal group, murder, attempted murder, and terrorism.
Kholbashov was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in September.
Shortly after their arrest, Kholbashov and Mamadshoyeva were shown on the state-run TV channel Tojikiston saying that they were among the people who had planned and organized the protests.
Meanwhile, the day before her arrest, on May 17, 2022, Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoyeva told Radio Ozodi and Current Time journalists that she had nothing to do with the anti-government protests in GBAO’s capital, Khorog, and in Rushan district.
The journalists were reportedly attacked the same day by unknown assailants after they interviewed Ms. Mamadshoyeva. The men confiscated the journalists' equipment and personal phones; that's why her last interview was never published.
