Buzurgmehr Yoroq spent 10 days in solitary confinement

On October 7, the administration of the Vahdat prison released the well-known prisoner and human rights defender Buzurgmehr Yorov from the punishment isolation cell.

Photo: Internet

Prisoner and human rights defender Buzurgmehr Yorov

Jamshed Yorov, chairman of the “Buzurgmehr” foundation, confirmed in an interview with Azda TV that Buzurgmehr Yorov was released from the punishment isolation cell. He reported that new staff at the Vahdat prison placed his brother in the punishment isolation cell ten days ago for not participating in the roll call. According to him, on October 7, he returned to his cell.

Human rights defender Jamshed Yorov stated that when his brother Buzurgmehr Yorov was in the prison library, “someone intentionally locked the library door from the outside so that he could not exit and participate in the roll call of prisoners.” Prison staff used this pretext to place Buzurgmehr Yorov in the punishment isolation cell for 10 days.

Photo: Internet

Jamshed Yorov explained that the authorities punished his brother Buzurgmehr for the activities of the “Buzurgmehr” foundation, as well as for the participation of foundation staff in the OSCE Human Rights Conference in Warsaw.

According to the Tajik human rights defender, during the two weeks of the OSCE conference in Warsaw, two other political prisoners were placed in the punishment isolation cell, but their names will not be disclosed until this information is confirmed.

Yorov stated that by punishing Buzurgmehr Yorov and other political prisoners, the authorities sent a signal to opposition groups and Tajik human rights defenders that “if our hands do not reach you, then they will reach your relatives, and they will be punished instead of you.”

On September 28, 2015, well-known Tajik human rights defender and political prisoner Buzurgmehr Yorov was arrested after he took on the defense of members of the Islamic Renaissance 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 ruling politically motivated.

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