Prisoner Khushruz underwent surgery in the prison hospital

Imprisoned journalist and blogger Khushruz Jumayev underwent a complex surgical operation. This was reported by well-known journalist Anora Sarkorova on her Facebook page.

It is reported that 25-year-old promoter and researcher of the Pamiri language, culture, and history Khushruz Jumayev, better known by the pseudonym Khushom Gul, was operated on November 16 of this year in a prison hospital in Dushanbe due to an exacerbation of varicocele (enlargement of veins).

“The disease may have arisen as a result of brutal torture, including electric shock, which Khushom Gul was subjected to in the first weeks after his arrest,” Sarkorova wrote.

Khushom Gul was detained by the officers of the Anti-Organized Crime Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan on May 19, 2022, amid mass detentions of activists from the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region.

For the first five days, the authorities concealed Khushom Gul’s whereabouts. During this time, the detainee was denied access to a lawyer. Then the defense of the convicted was carried out by a “court-appointed lawyer,” assigned by the agency investigating the criminal case.

The lack of access to a lawyer, especially in the first days and weeks of detention, is one of the most common violations of the rights of detainees in Tajikistan, and investigators try to obtain “confessions” from the arrested as quickly as possible.

Typically, investigators extract “confessions” using illegal actions. The most common methods are torture, threats, and blackmail involving relatives.

The criminal case against Khushom Gul, like those of all Pamiri activists, was classified as “secret,” in order to conceal from the public numerous violations that occurred during the investigation.

At the end of December 2022, the court sentenced journalist Khushom Gul to eight years in a high-security prison, finding him guilty under Article 187, Part 2 (“Organization of a criminal community (criminal organization). Khushom Gul is serving his sentence in correctional colony No. 7 in Dushanbe (better known as “1st Soviet”).

International and human rights organizations have called all charges against Khushom Gul and other Pamiri activists, as well as other journalists and bloggers, fabricated and politically motivated, and have repeatedly urged for their immediate and unconditional release. However, the authorities of Tajikistan ignore the calls of international organizations.