Nurullo Saidov, the brother of the late Sayid Abdulloh Nuri, former leader of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), has been detained din Tajikistan, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reported on March 15.
The Interior Ministry of Tajikistan has not commented on the reason for detention of a 64-year-old Nurullo Saidov.
Meanwhile, his relatives told Radio Ozodi that Nurullo Saidov had been detained on suspicion of receiving financial assistance from abroad
Earlier, two nephews of Sayid Abdulloh Nuri – Nusratullo Saidov and Muhibullo Nuriddinov – had been arrested on suspicion of receiving money from abroad.
Sayid Abdulloh Nuri’s brother Abubakr Nuri, who now lives in Germany, told Radio Ozodi on March 15 that “receiving financial assistance from abroad” is just a pretext for the arrest. He considers that the arrest of his brother Nurullo Saidov is politically motivated.
“Indeed, Nurullo’s relatives live abroad and send money to their families. This is what hundreds of thousands of Tajik migrants working in Russia migrants do,” Abubakr Nuri said.
In recent year, several persons have been jailed in Tajikistan for receiving remittances from Tajik opposition abroad.
Sayid Abdulloh (March 15, 1947 – August 9, 2006), led the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan from 1993 until he died of cancer in late 2006. During the Tajik civil war of 1992 to 1997 he led the United Tajik Opposition (UTO). Nuri and President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon ended the civil war by signing the Tajik National Peace Accord in 1997. Nuri also led the Commission on National Reconciliation in Tajikistan.
Nuri was born in Sangvor, Rasht Valley (eastern Tajikistan). In 1974 he founded Nahzat-i Islomi, an Islamic education organization. Soviet police arrested him in 1986 for spreading 'religious propaganda', imprisoning him until 1988.
Founded in October 1990, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan was the only Islamic party officially registered in former Soviet Central Asia. The IRP was registered on December 4, 1991. It was banned by the Supreme Court in June 1993 and legalized in August 1999. According to some sources, the IRP had some 40,000 members.
Since 1999, the party had reportedly been the second-largest party in Tajikistan after the ruling People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan.
In the 2005 and 2010 parliamentary elections, the IRP won two out of 63 seats in the parliament, but the party suffered a crushing defeat in Tajikistan's March 1, 2015 vote, failing to clear the 5 percent threshold needed to win parliament seats.
The Tajik Justice Ministry banned the Islamic Renaissance Party in late August 2015 and gave it 10 days to halt all activities. According to a statement issued by the ministry on August 28, 2015, the Islamic Revival Party could not legally continue its activities because the Justice Ministry said the party did not have enough members to qualify as an officially registered party. The ministry said that all the party's branches in 58 cities and districts across Tajikistan have been closed.
Tajikistan’s Supreme Court banned the Islamic Renaissance Party as terrorist group on September 29, 2015 on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office. The Supreme Court ruled that the IRP should be included on a blacklist of extremist and terrorist organizations. The verdict forces the closure of the IRP’s official newspaper Najot and bans the distribution of any video, audio, or printed materials related to the party’s activities.
