Relatives of Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzod, a Tajik journalist, report that they have not received information about his condition for the past six months.
Two months ago, they complained that they had not received any news about his health since March and could not meet with him in Khujand prison, Radio "Ozodi " writes.
However, now his family claims that he spent 6 months in a disciplinary isolation cell, and then was transferred to a prison with a "critical" regime, but they do not know the reasons for this transfer.
On September 11, the journalist's relatives reported that his condition had worsened in a high-security prison in Dushanbe, and he was transferred to the prison hospital in the city of Vakhdat, known as "Kirpichny".
According to relatives, Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda's gallbladder was filled with stones, which caused his disability, and the pain increased, causing him agony. The doctors offered to perform surgery, but he refused surgery. He also suffers from kidney pain.
"Ozodi" notes that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has asked the Government of Tajikistan to provide Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda with immediate and appropriate medical care. The organization also considers him innocent and demands his release.
The Tajik authorities have not yet commented on the deterioration of the journalist's health.
Pirmukhammadzoda was sentenced to 7 years in prison in December 2022 on charges of belonging to banned organizations. He and his relatives have repeatedly denied these accusations.
After his arrest, the journalist wrote a letter from the detention center, stating that from the first day he had been under psychological pressure and torture in order to take responsibility for the charges, which he called "made up" by the authorities.
The General Prosecutor's Office of Tajikistan has not confirmed these allegations.
In recent years, Tajik authorities have arrested more than a dozen journalists and bloggers and sentenced them to long prison terms, mostly on charges of extremism. There are also reports of at least seven deaths in prisons, the main cause of which was the untimely provision of medical care. The demands of human rights organizations to investigate these incidents and release the journalists have not yet been met.
