Dushanbe City Hall bans rally to demand extradition of Tajik opposition members from Germany
DUSHANBE. April 21 (Interfax) - The administration of the Tajik capital Dushanbe has rejected a request for permission to stage a protest near the German Embassy building, City Hall spokesman Shavkat Saidov told Interfax on Tuesday.
Tajik citizens planned to hold a rally outside the German diplomatic mission to demand the extradition of Tajik opposition activists who staged a protest near the Tajik Embassy in Berlin on April 15. About a dozen people came to the German Embassy in Dushanbe early on April 16. Shortly afterwards, a police bus arrived at the site. According to eyewitnesses, the protesters got on the bus on their own and the bus then drove away. Police did not use any force against the demonstrators.
"The Mayor's Office considered a rally near Germany's Embassy in Dushanbe to be unadvisable because such events would not fit into the warm and constructive relationship between our states," Saidov said.
An appeal to attend the rally in Dushanbe was posted on Tajik social networking websites the previous weekend, but was deleted on Monday.
Several Tajik opposition members live in Germany. They include journalist Dododjon Atovulloyev, who claims to be the leader of the Vatandor (Patriot) movement, which demands the resignation of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. Nothing is known about other Vatandor members, although Atovulloyev announced the establishment of this moment several years ago.
Germany also granted political asylum to opposition Group 24 members, whose leader, Umarali Kuvvatov, was killed in Istanbul in March 2015. His supporters are convinced that Kuvvatov's murder was politically motivated. The Tajik authorities, for their part, believe that Kuvvatov was killed allegedly because of his criminal connections.
Following Kuvvatov's murder, five members of Group 24, which was labeled by Tajikistan as an extremist organization, were sentenced from three to 17 years in prison by Dushanbe courts.
