Pirmukhammadzoda transferred to Khujand prison

Tajik journalist Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda, convicted, has been transferred from the pre-trial detention center in Dushanbe to a colony in Khujand.

Photo: Internet

The brother of the political prisoner journalist Abdukarim Pirmukhammadzoda told Radio Ozodi that on March 4, Abdusattor was transferred to the Khujand colony. He is currently placed in quarantine for twelve days.

According to Abdukarim Pirmukhammadzoda, “the transfer of Abdusattor to the Khujand colony will create difficulties for his relatives and close ones, especially his wife and children, as they will not be able to visit him often due to the distance.”

Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda was detained last year. The court found him guilty of collaborating with banned organizations and sentenced him to 7 years in prison.

Earlier, Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda wrote in a letter from the pre-trial detention center that he had been subjected to brutal torture and psychological pressure from the first day of his detention, with police officers and investigators forcing him to give false confessions.

“Eight to ten days of torture, complete isolation, threats and insults towards my family made me take on a crime I did not commit,” the letter from Pirmukhammadzoda states.

A staff member of the human rights ombudsman office in Tajikistan, Mukim Ashurov, stated that none of Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda’s relatives had approached them regarding the torture he faced. According to him, he read about it in the news. He then reported that the ombudsman’s office would review his case in February 2023.

However, in February, no one from the human rights ombudsman office in Tajikistan met with Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda.

On March 6, representatives of the country’s human rights ombudsman Mukim Ashurov and Khusnidin Nidoev confirmed in a conversation with Asia-Plus that they had not met with the convicted journalist Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda. There was no clear answer as to why the meeting did not take place.

Meanwhile, on February 17, representatives of the human rights ombudsman of Tajikistan met with convicted Tajik journalists – Abdullo Gurbati, Daler Emomali, and Zavkibek Saidamini in correctional colony No. 3/4, better known as “the colony on 1st Soviet.”

Last year, several journalists and bloggers, including Daler Emomali, Abdullo Gurbati, Zavkibek Saidamini, Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, Muhammadi Sultan, Khushruz Jumayev, and Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda, were sentenced to long prison terms on false charges, including providing knowingly false information and collaborating with banned organizations.

International and human rights organizations have repeatedly called on Tajik authorities to release detained journalists, but the country’s authorities always ignore these calls from human rights organizations.