Members of Tajik Islamic Renaissance Party charged with organizing armed mutiny
DUSHANBE. Oct 6 (Interfax) - The Tajik Prosecutor General's Office has officially filed charges against 23 representatives of the leadership of the recently banned Islamic Renaissance Party (PIVT) of Tajikistan, the Prosecutor's Office said in a press release on Tuesday.
"Criminal cases have been opened against the detained PIVT activists under Article 179 (terrorism), Article 187 (establishment of a criminal community), Article 189 (incitement of ethnic, racial, parochial and religious hatred), Article 306 (violent seizure of power), Article 307 (public calls for extremist activity) and Article 313 (armed mutiny) of the Penal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan," it said.
A total of 23 PIVT leaders have been arrested, including the party's deputy chairman, the editor-in-chief of the party's newspaper and other activists of Tajikistan's sole opposition group. It was reported earlier that only 13 members of the PIVT Political Council had been detained, among them Saidumar Husaini, who held a seat in the Tajik parliament from 2010 to 2015.
On September 29, Tajikistan's Supreme Court banned the party's official newspaper and website and branded them as extremist. The Tajik authorities accused PIVT of attempting to stage a violent coup in September 2015, banned its operations in the country's territory and labeled its ideology as 'terrorist and extremist'.
The Prosecutor General's Office offered 40,000 members to quit the party's ranks.
"If after the adoption of the aforementioned decision by the Supreme Court, PIVT members choose to stay within this party and continue to promote its ideas, they will face criminal prosecution in accordance with the norms of Tajikistan's legislation," the Prosecutor's Office said.
The Tajik Interior Ministry, for its part, said that people who will voluntarily inform the local authorities or law enforcement agencies of their decision to leave PIVT will not be prosecuted.
The Amnesty International organization has called on the international community to prevent the torture of PIVT members, which the organization considers to be quite probable. The U.S. based human rights organization Freedom House also spoke out in PIVT's defense and accused the United States of "eliciting only a muted response" to the closure of this party.
The current PIVT leader, Muhiddin Kabiri, had been a member of the country's parliament before February 2015, and after losing the March 1 election to the Tajik parliament travelled to Europe and said he will not return to his home country for fear of being prosecuted on political grounds. According to some reports, he and his family currently reside in Turkey where he has applied for political asylum.
PIVT is the only legal religious party in the post-Soviet republics. It has a membership of over 40,000 Tajik citizens.