Norwegian Helsinki Committee demanded the release of Abdullo

The international organization called on the authorities of Tajikistan to disclose the whereabouts of Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin.

Photo: Internet

On March 2, Berit Lindemann, the Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, in her statement called on the authorities of Tajikistan to release Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin.

“The authorities of Tajikistan must disclose information about the whereabouts of Shamsiddin Abdulkhoji, who was denied asylum in Tajikistan and disappeared after his recent forced return from Germany to Tajikistan,” the statement noted.

According to the Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s statement, the authorities of Tajikistan are aware that Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin is a close associate of the leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, Muhiddin Kabiri, and that they maintained regular and close contacts in Germany until his deportation. It also noted that he is the son of a high-ranking member of the IRPT, Shamsiddin Saidov, which puts Shamsiddin at even greater risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

“If he is being held in custody, Dushanbe must present credible charges against him or release him immediately. In any case, he must be provided with a lawyer who will have access to him,” stated the committee’s Secretary General.

The committee emphasized in its statement that the peaceful Tajik opposition party IRPT was declared illegal and extremist by the authorities of Tajikistan in 2015 amid a brutal crackdown on human rights. Hundreds of party members have since been imprisoned on fabricated charges. In recent years, the human rights situation in Tajikistan has further deteriorated, and the authorities regularly persecute relatives and family members of opposition figures, activists, and even lawyers.

“In recent years, a full-scale human rights crisis has spiraled out of control in Tajikistan, where the authorities have imprisoned hundreds of peaceful opposition members, activists, and intellectuals, including lawyers, journalists, and others on fabricated and politically motivated charges, as well as kidnapped, disappeared, and killed political opponents and dissidents,” the statement noted.

According to the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the regime has virtually destroyed freedom of speech, brutally cracked down on the press, and declared any political opposition illegal. Impunity for gross human rights violations remains the norm, and torture is commonplace in the penitentiary system.

Marius Fossum, a representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Central Asia, told Azda TV:

“Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin has become a victim of the actions of Tajik law enforcement agencies, which regularly persecute the relatives and close ones of political opponents of the authorities. The Tajik authorities have attacked and harassed the relatives of dissidents for years, imprisoning them to take revenge on dissenters.”

Photo: Internet

“We were told that before the deportation of Abdulkhoji, the Tajik authorities assured the German authorities that no criminal case had been opened against Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin. However, the very fact that nothing has been heard from him since his return to Tajikistan clearly shows that they had their own plans for him. And this proves that the authorities of Tajikistan cannot be trusted in such matters,” emphasized Marius Fossum.

The representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Central Asia called on Tajikistan’s international partners to pressure Dushanbe to disclose the whereabouts of Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin and release him.

On January 18, the authorities of Germany deported Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin to Tajikistan due to the lack of residence documents.

Earlier, relatives of Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin informed Azda TV that on January 18, 2023, he was deported from Germany and detained by Tajik law enforcement agencies directly on the plane at Dushanbe International Airport, from where he was taken to an unknown location.

After Tajik political activist Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin was detained and later deported from Germany to Tajikistan, friends, colleagues, and political activists held at least four protests in Germany calling for his release.

Weeks later, the authorities of Tajikistan still have not provided any information about the fate of Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin, nor have they disclosed where he is being held and under what conditions. Earlier, the Attorney General and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan stated that they knew nothing about the whereabouts of Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin.

In recent days, a number of opponents of the government of Emomali Rahmon in European countries have been conducting public actions on social media to draw the attention of Tajik authorities and international human rights organizations to the case of political activist Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin.

Earlier, a group of opposition and dissenting representatives living in European countries launched a flash mob with the hashtag #Where_is_Abdulkhoji_Shamsiddin? on social media, where they publish photos of Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin with calls to release him and disclose his whereabouts. The flash mob was launched to draw the attention of the residents and authorities of Tajikistan to the case of Abdulkhoji Shamsiddin.