A group of seven international rights organizations, namely the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the International Partnership for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Freedom Now, The Observatory, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and FrontLine, have called on Dushanbe for the second time since April to immediately and unconditionally release lawyer Manouchehr Kholiqnazarov, who is serving his jail term of 16 years for his human rights activities in Tajikistan.
"Manouchehr dedicated his life to advocating for justice for ordinary people and ensuring that every individual is treated fairly under the law…and now he needs your help," says a statement released by the organizations on November 6.
Manouchehr Kholiqnazarov is a human rights lawyer from Tajikistan, director of the Lawyers’ Association of Pamir (LAP). According to the statement, he has helped countless victims of human rights violations and strengthened rule of law and democratic structures in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous region (GBAO). Kholiqnazarov is the director of the Lawyers Association of Pamir, one of the few civil society organizations active in Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan region.
After mass protests erupted in the region in November 2021, Kholiqnazarov joined the Commission 44 organization — in which members of law enforcement agencies and local civil society representatives joined to investigate the reasons behind the unrest.
In December 2022, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced Manouchehr Kholiqnazarov to 16 years in prison. The sentence followed his conviction on charges of participation in a criminal and banned organization.
