“Witnesses” testified against Yorov under pressure

The prison administration is pressuring and threatening dozens of inmates to write statements against Buzurgmehr Yorov.

On June 21, Jamshed Yorov, head of the “Buzurgmehr” Foundation, told Azda TV that they have been unable to find accurate information about the progress of the trial of his brother, political prisoner and well-known lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov, for three days.

The trial of political prisoner Buzurgmehr Yorov has been ongoing since June 13 in the pre-trial detention center in Dushanbe.

The case is being heard by a judge from Vahdat, and witnesses have already given their testimonies.

According to Jamshed Yorov, on the second day of the trial, June 14, the authorities obtained a receipt from his relatives stating that information regarding Buzurgmehr Yorov’s case is classified as “secret” and they are not allowed to disclose details of the trial.

However, during this period, a post was published on the Facebook page of Davlatshoev Nazarali Rahmatshoevich, the former lawyer of Buzurgmehr Yorov, where his former client was called a “fraud” and details of the trial were shared.

The head of the “Buzurgmehr” Foundation reported that his brother’s former lawyer is not responding to his calls or the calls of his relatives. Jamshed Yorov believes that this post was not written by Davlatshoev.

The human rights defender believes that the authorities themselves are publishing details of the investigation and trial, despite claiming that the case is classified as “secret.” Jamshed Yorov intends to disclose details about his brother’s case in a video on June 22 in Russian.

The human rights defender stated that the “Buzurgmehr” Foundation has obtained an audio recording from the plaintiff Hasan Hasanov, who says: “The authorities have subjected more than a hundred people in prison to pressure and torture to make them write statements against Buzurgmehr Yorov.”

Photo: Internet

On June 14, during the trial, inmate Hasan Hasanov insisted that Buzurgmehr Yorov received 42,500 somoni (over $4,000) for providing legal services but did nothing. Buzurgmehr Yorov denied receiving any money and called Hasanov’s statement “another slander.”

Jamshed Yorov also reported that another person who testified against Buzurgmehr Yorov stated that he does not know Buzurgmehr Yorov or his relatives and has never given them money.

On November 24, 2022, political prisoner and well-known lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov was transferred from the colony in Vahdat to a high-security closed-type colony, known as “the covered” in Dushanbe, for two years.

After that, the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan initiated yet another, already the fourth criminal case against Yorov. Later, Buzurgmehr Yorov was transferred to Detention Center No. 1 in Dushanbe. Buzurgmehr Yorov wrote in a letter from prison that all the charges against him are fabricated.

Relatives of Buzurgmehr Yorov called these accusations politically motivated. According to them, Yorov’s case, like the cases of all opponents of the Rahmon regime or civil society activists, was fabricated in an atmosphere of lies, secrecy, using pressure and torture against suspects, witnesses, and their relatives.

Well-known Tajik human rights defender and political prisoner Buzurgmehr Yorov was arrested on September 28, 2015, when he took on the defense of members of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan in court. He was charged with various offenses, including fraud, forgery of documents, and insulting the president. The court sentenced him to 28 years in prison. The human rights defender and his supporters rejected the charges and called the court’s verdict politically motivated.

Western countries and several international organizations have repeatedly called on the authorities of Tajikistan to release Buzurgmehr Yorov from prison. However, the country’s authorities have never taken into account the demands of international organizations.