“Ikhvans” did not make it to the list of those granted amnesty

None of those detained on suspicion of membership in the “Ikhwan al-Muslimin” in Tajikistan have been released under the amnesty law.

Photo: Internet

Sources from AZDA TV reported that three days before the amnesty law came into effect in Tajikistan, the relatives of the “ikhwans” hoped that their imprisoned relatives would be released under the amnesty, but in the last days they were told that “by order from above” none of those convicted in this case would be released.

Relatives of the convicted say that despite not believing in the release of their imprisoned relatives, after the publication of the law “On Amnesty,” some intermediaries from law enforcement offered their help in securing their release for a certain fee in the form of a bribe. However, in the end, they said that “an order came from above” and therefore they could do nothing.

It is reported that these intermediaries previously demanded up to 40,000 somoni to include the prisoners in the list of those to be amnestied, but when the order “from above” came not to release them, they all refused to take on this matter.

In January 2020, media reports emerged about the detention of a group of Tajik citizens on charges of membership in the “Ikhwan al-Muslimin.”

The majority of the individuals involved in this case were professors and students from the country’s universities, who were detained by law enforcement on charges of creating an extremist group and “financing terrorist activities.”

The activities of the “Muslim Brotherhood” were banned in Tajikistan in 2006, but only 14 years later did law enforcement detain more than 120 citizens and sentence them to prison terms ranging from five to eight years.

* “Ikhwan al-Muslimin” (Muslim Brotherhood) is a religious-political association founded in March 1928 by teacher Hassan al-Banna in Ismailia, Egypt. It is recognized as a terrorist organization, and its activities are banned in the territory of the Russian Federation and many post-Soviet countries.