Relatives of the Tajik opposition figure have been released

On the evening of September 8, law enforcement agencies in the Rasht district released the elderly parents and sister of Tajik opposition figure Farhod Khudoerov.

Farhod Khudoerov, who currently resides in Europe, told Azda TV on Tuesday that on September 8, the authorities in the Rasht district organized a working group to review the case of his parents. This working group found that the elderly parents of the Tajik opposition figure were innocent, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs officials in the Rasht district had illegally detained them.

According to Farhod Khudoerov, this working group decided to release his parents and sister, and they have now returned home.

Officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Rasht district detained my parents and sister at the request of the district prosecutor Abdurashid Kishvarzoda. However, as a result of the investigation into this case, it became clear that the officials from the town of Navobod acted unlawfully and arbitrarily detained my parents,” Khudoerov said.

According to Khudoerov, the working group of law enforcement agencies in the district found Sudobai Iskandar guilty – the woman who attacked their home and threw stones at it.

On September 6, officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Rasht district detained the 78-year-old father, 68-year-old mother, and sister of Tajik opposition figure Farhod Khudoerov. They were placed in a temporary detention facility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Rasht district. According to relatives, a criminal case was initiated against them under Article 237 (hooliganism) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan.

Tajik opposition figure Farhod Khudoerov told Azda TV on Thursday, September 7, that a group of individuals, including the head of the mahalla Safarov Mahmadrahim, the imam and khatib of the local mosque Nazriev Abdullo, Sudobai Iskandar – the wife of Abdulloh 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 come out of the house.

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

After the publication of this report, some users who identified themselves as residents of this village claimed that the events unfolded differently. One user claimed that the elderly man hit a minor child with a cane on the lower back and injured him. However, the Khudoerov family denies this.

This is not the first time this family’s name has appeared in the media. According to Farhod Khudoerov, members of the Azimov family, who are relatives of Mahmadtoir Zokirzoda, 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.