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HUMAN RIGHTS
Tajik authorities continue to persecute former opposition members
The press secretary of "Group 24," Ubaidullo Said, reported to Radio Ozodi on June 10 that Sulaymon Jobirov has not been a member of this organization for eight years and has no connection with them. "In 2016, at a meeting of the organization, he voluntarily withdrew from membership in 'Group 24' and has shown no desire to cooperate or join us since," Said noted.
Sulaymon Jobirov “disappeared” in Russia and reappeared in a detention center in Dushanbe. Relatives of Sulaymon Jobirov said that they managed to establish his whereabouts after several weeks. This 43-year-old Tajik migrant mysteriously “disappeared” on April 8 in Samara, the administrative center of one of the Russian regions.
According to them, he is currently in a detention center in Dushanbe, accused of collaborating with the banned organization “Group 24” in Tajikistan. “An investigator contacted his father and informed him that Sulaymon is in custody and is accused of collaborating with ‘Group 24’. Sulaymon’s father traveled to Dushanbe and met with his son. Sulaymon has a lawyer,” one of Jobirov’s relatives said in a phone conversation with Radio Ozodi on June 10.
The spokesperson for “Group 24,” Ubaidullo Said, told Radio Ozodi on June 10 that Sulaymon Jobirov has not been a member of this organization for eight years and has no connection with them. “In 2016, at a meeting of the organization, he voluntarily withdrew from membership in ‘Group 24’ and has shown no desire to cooperate or join us since,” Said noted.
Sulaymon Jobirov is a native of the Vakhsh district and has six children. He lived in Samara, Russia, for many years.
The organization “Group 24,” which was founded by the “disgraced” businessman Umarali Kuvvatov (who was killed in Turkey in 2015), has been recognized as extremist by the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, and its activities are banned in Tajikistan. Currently, dozens of people have been arrested in Tajikistan, Russia, and other countries on suspicion of membership in this organization, and many of them have been sentenced to long prison terms.
Meanwhile, the fate of the leader of “Group 24,” Suhrob Zafar, and another activist of this opposition organization, Nasimjon Sharifov, remains unclear. They also mysteriously disappeared in Istanbul (Turkey) in February and March of this year, respectively. There is no information about their whereabouts or conditions.
