Leader of opposition movement Young People of Tajikistan arrested in Dushanbe
DUSHANBE. Feb 2 (Interfax) - Maksud Ibragimov, leader of the Russian opposition association Young People of Tajikistan, was arrested and is kept in a detention facility in Dushanbe, Rizo Khalifzoda, the head of the Tajik Prosecutor General Office's Department on Supervision over the Observance of Law, told reporters on Monday.
Khalifzoda did not say how Ibragimov, who lives in Russia, turned out to be in Tajikistan. Activists from the association Young People of Tajikistan believe he was detained by Russian police and was "illegally" extradited t Tajikistan. Over half a million Tajik citizens, half of the economically active population of Tajikistan, work in Russia.
"A criminal case was opened against Maksud Ibragimov on the basis of several articles of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan, which is being investigated by Interior Ministry investigators," Khalifzoda told a press conference.
He did not name the crimes the opposition activist is accused of committing.
"Nine criminal cases have now been opened against 32 members of the banned extremist organization group 24" Khalifzoda said, he did not specify how many of them have been arrested.
Activists from Young People of Tajikistan, which is a structure of Group 24, which demands the resignation of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, said on Facebook about a dozen opposition activists were detained in Russia and Tajikistan in the past few weeks.
"They [the detainees] are suspected of extremism because they wanted a better life through reform for Tajikistan and its citizens. They need public and legal support and assistance. They need civil unity and protection," the organization said in its statement.
Abdufattokh Goib, the head of the Tajik presidential Agency on State Financial Control and Corruption Prevention, said Umarali Kuvvatov, a leader of Group 24, was charged with hostage-taking and some financial crimes.
Kuvvatov and his three supporters have been held by the Turkish authorities, who should make a decision on their extradition to Tajikistan at the request of the Tajik authorities since December 2014.
Another three citizens of Tajikistan who are members of Group 24 were detained with the Tajik politicians in Istanbul on December 19, 2014.
The association Human Rights in Central Asia called on Turkey to fulfill the UN convention on the status of refugees and the convention against torture to provide lawyers to Kuvvatov.
Group 24, which is headed by journalists and businessmen who have emigrated from Tajikistan, on October 3 called on the people of Tajikistan to come to the main square of Dushanbe on October 30 with anti-government slogans, specifically, with demands for Rahmon's resignation. The authorities reinforced the checkpoints at the entrance to Dushanbe with armored vehicles and special task forces. As a result, the rally did not rake place and the only people who came to the site at the designated time were police officers and journalists.
The Prosecutor General's Office field a lawsuit seeking the recognition of Group 24 as an extremist organization on October 7, 2014.Two days later, the activities by group 24 were declared extremist and its materials were banned on the territory of Tajikistan.
Most users of social networking sites in Tajikistan were not very enthusiastic about the calls made by the politician in exile. Most people who commented on posts in which those calls were made recalled the 1992-1997 civil war in Tajikistan, in which thousands of people were killed and the country's economy was destroyed, and said they believed no one would come to the rally in Dushanbe.
Kuvvatov calls himself leader of the opposition movement Group 24, which he says comprises many Tajik businessmen and politicians, who are not named. Kuvvatov is not known to the general public in Tajikistan. Before leaving Tajikistan, he was a businessman and owned the private companies Faroz and Tojiron, which supplied petroleum products to the neighboring Afghanistan through Tajikistan.
After Kuvvatov left the country, he began appearing on the Kazakh opposition television channel K-Plus and the Russian Dozhd television. In interviews with these television channels, he sharply criticized the Tajik authorities, mainly the Tajik president and his family. Kuvvatov said Group 24 would take part in the November 2013 presidential elections, but it did not.
