Police officers detained relatives of a Tajik opposition figure

In the Rasht district, the mother and sister of Farhod Khudoerov have been detained.

Tajik opposition figure Farhod Khudoerov, who is currently a refugee in Europe, told Azda TV on Thursday that a group of individuals, including the chairman of the mahalla Safarov Mahmadrahim, the imam and khatib of the local mosque Nazriyev Abdullo, Sudobai Iskandar – the wife of Abdullo Azimov, a person involved in the murder of his nephew, as well as her mother and sister, came to their home on the night of August 3-4 and demanded that they leave the house.

“When my mother, father, and sister went outside, they stated: ‘You have blocked our water.’ At that moment, Sudobai Iskandar took my sister’s phone and smashed it. A verbal altercation and fight ensued. This woman knocked my sister to the ground and began to beat her,” Farhod Khudoerov reported.

According to Khudoerov, after this incident, on September 6, the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers in the Rasht district detained his 78-year-old father, 68-year-old mother, and his sister. They were placed in the temporary detention facility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Rasht district. A criminal case has already been initiated against them under Article 237 (hooliganism) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan. They are now expected to be transferred to the pre-trial detention center in Dushanbe.

Our interlocutor stated that his father and mother would likely be released, considering their advanced age, but it is still unclear how events will unfold. According to him, none of his relatives have seen them yet.

Farhod Khudoerov stated that the reason for the detention of his parents lies elsewhere, and the incident on September 3 is not related. He mentioned that on September 2, his mother went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Rasht district to obtain information about the criminal case initiated against him.

During the conversation, Khudoerov’s mother told the prosecutor of the Rasht district Abdurashid Kishvarzoda and the head of the district’s police department Safolzoda that she would complain to the president of the country about the injustice and unlawful actions of these two officials.

The next day, they organized this provocation near the Khudoerov home and detained his mother and sister.

This is not the first time the name of this family has appeared in the media. According to Farhod Khudoerov, members of the Azimov family, who are relatives of Mahmadtoir Zokirozoda, the chairman of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (lower house of parliament) of Tajikistan, have repeatedly subjected their family to persecution and violence. He stated that in 2021, it was they who killed his nephew, the son of his brother – 20-year-old Alirizo Khudoerov.