DUSHANBE, October 13, 2008, Asia-Plus — The name of Dodojon Atovulloyev, the editor-in-chief of a Moscow-based Tajik newspaper
Charoghi Rouz
(Day of Light) and the founder of an organization, Vatandor (Patriot), has been put on a list of persons wanted by police and he will be detained sooner or later, the Prosecutor-General Bobojon Bobokhonov announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on October 13.
He noted that according to data of the Tajik law enforcement authorities, Atovulloyev is currently in France.
As it had been reported earlier, the Tajik Prosecutor-General’s on September 22 issued an arrest warrant for Dodojon Atovulloyev on charges of insulting the Tajik president and calling for the overthrow of the constitutional system.
According to unofficial sources, Dodojon Atovulloyev currently lives and works in Germany.
We will recall that in a report released at a press conference in Dushanbe, Tajik chief prosecutor said on July 11, 2008 that Dodojon Atovulloyev is “information terrorist.” According to him, living outside Tajikistan, Atovulloyev is defaming honor and dignity of the Tajik people and blackening reputation of the Tajik state in his articles and statements. “Dodojon Atovulloyev is a person without homeland, he has never been and will never be leader,” the chief prosecutor said. He noted, “If Atovulloyev continues slanderous activity, we will have to institute criminal proceedings against him and he will be detained in any way in order to answer for that in accordance with law.”
Dodojon Atovulloyev gave a news conference in the office of Russia’s news agency Rosbalt in Moscow on June 24, 2008. According to Rosbalt, speaking at the press conference, Atovulloyev called to establish “real democratic system with parliament, free elections and mass media” in Tajikistan. He offered to depose the governing post-Soviet President of Tajikistan by mass actions of civil disobedience, Rosbalt reported. Dodojon Atovulloyev accused Tajik President Emomali Rahmon in “reducing his country to poverty of the level of the poorest African countries”. He said that he headed the opposition in expulsion and had not had a possibility to visit his native Tajikistan since 2004. “Some two million Tajik nationals currently live and work in Russia. We get all information from them,” noted the
Charoghi Rouz
editor. Dodojon Atovulloyev said that he hopes that all Tajik migrant will return to Tajikistan and he will come back to Tajikistan with the last migrant and guest worker.
Atovulloyev, the editor of the online opposition newspaper
Charoghi Rouz
and the founder of Vatandor, is a sharp critic of the policies of President Emomali Rahmon.
Although the Tajik law enforcement authorities have instituted criminal proceedings against Atovulloyev, they have yet to request Atovulloyev’s extradition from Russian.
According to some international media, fearing that Russia would grant Tajikistan’s extradition request, Dodojon Atovulloyev has fled to Paris. In an interview with a EurasiaNet correspondent, Atovulloyev said he decided to leave Russia after discovering that Tajik security agents had reportedly arrived in Moscow with the intention of taking him into custody.
