Bobonazarova: I am ready to investigate the attack on Saifullozoda as part of the investigative group

Well-known Tajik human rights activist Oynikhol Bobonazarova has called on the country’s authorities to investigate the incident of an attack in prison on 70-year-old inmate and journalist Hikmatullo Saifullozoda.

Photo: Internet

Civil society activist and head of the NGO “Perspektiva+” Oynikhol Bobonazarova stated: “The relevant authorities must investigate the incident as soon as possible, and if it is true, those responsible must be punished.”

Ms. Bobonazarova suggested: “It would be good if someone from civil society were included in the investigative group. I am ready to join this group. If I am included in the investigative group, and if this is indeed slander, then I will personally say that it is slander and will call on the disseminators to put an end to the spread of false information.”

On September 29, an attack was carried out in Vahdat prison against well-known Tajik political prisoner and journalist Hikmatullo Saifullozoda, resulting in Saifullozoda sustaining a head injury and being hospitalized.

According to the wife of the imprisoned journalist, Farogat Sanginova, the attacker was a convicted murderer, Aslidin Tursunov. He attacked Saifullozoda in the medical unit of the colony and struck him on the head with an iron teapot. As a result, Saifullozoda sustained a head injury, and the 70-year-old victim was hospitalized for a week.

Tursunov had previously been hospitalized in the medical unit for 10 days. Sanginova believes that the attacker was deliberately brought there to beat Saifullozoda. She added that the incident was premeditated and resembles an operation for the physical elimination of Mahmadali Hait.

In a conversation with AZDA TV, Sanginova also reported that her husband had previously been hospitalized in the medical unit of the colony due to a heart condition, and he was supposed to be treated and discharged from the unit. However, in the past week, Saifullozoda had not called his relatives even once.

On September 30, Sanginova was at Vahdat prison to visit her husband, but she was not allowed into the medical unit. The prison guards told her that no one had attacked her husband and that he was fine.

“In front of the prison building, I insisted and told the guards that I would not leave until I saw my husband. Twenty minutes later, my husband called me, and I asked him how everything happened. My husband said that the inmate who attacked him was convicted of murder, and in the middle of the night, he attacked my husband in the medical unit and hit him on the head with an iron teapot,” added Farogat Sanginova.

On September 9, “Reporters Without Borders” (RSF) issued a statement to the government of Tajikistan, calling for the release of Hikmatullo Saifullozoda from prison. “Saifullozoda has been in prison since 2015, and his life is in danger,” the statement said.

Former editor-in-chief of the weekly “Najot” of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan and one of the country’s most well-known analysts, Hikmatullo Saifullozoda is currently held in a new prison in Vahdat.

Former member of the Supreme Presidium of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, Hikmatullo Saifullozoda was arrested in 2015 on fabricated charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison.