Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported yesterday that Asliddin Sharipov, the brother of the director of an opposition online television station, has been held in a detention center in the Tajik northern city of Khujand weeks after he was extradited from Russia.
Sharipov's relatives told RFE/RL over the weekend that a lawyer was allowed to visit Sharipov last week for the first time since he was deported to Tajikistan in early October.
According to the relatives, they have yet to be allowed to visit Sharipov.
Recall, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) said in a statement released on October 30 that Tajik authorities must disclose the whereabouts of Asliddin Sharipov.
Police in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg arrested Asliddin Sharipov in September 2022 and extradited him to Tajikistan on October 1, 2023.
Asliddin Sharipov was reportedly wanted in Tajikistan for alleged cooperation with two banned opposition groups — the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and the Group 24 movement. According to the Russian court’s documents, the charge stems from his online posts "supporting the two banned groups.”
Sharipov's brother, Shavkat Muhammadi, is the director of the opposition Payom online TV channel and currently resides in the European Union.
If convicted, Asliddin Sharipov faces up to eight years in prison.
