Woman with a disability claims her apartment was taken away and she was labeled a terrorist

Gulchekhra Kholmatova, a 58-year-old woman with a disability, claims that the prosecutor’s office has unjustly initiated a criminal case against her, after which she was declared wanted.

In an interview with Azda TV, Gulchekhra stated that their problems began in 2013 when she and her mother, Mukhabathona Abdulfatoeva, decided to sell their apartment on the 16th floor of building No. 113 on Sino Street and purchase housing on lower floors.

According to Gulchekhra, as a person with a disability, she faced difficulties since the elevator was not working, and she had to climb 16 flights of stairs every day. Additionally, water did not reach the upper floors, so she had to carry water.

“When we wanted to sell the apartment, we contacted the company LLC “Samad-2012” (currently this company operates under the name “Kafolat-KA”). The head of the company, Anvar Begidzhonovich Kholov, signed a contract with us, according to which the company was to take our apartment and in return provide us with an apartment for $38,000 in the Zarafshon-2 area, Nusratullo Makhsum Street 10, building 26, apartment 19. According to the contract, the apartment was to be built and the keys handed over to us within two years. However, 13 years have passed, and we still have not received either the money or the apartment,” Gulchekhra complains.

The woman with a disability also added that when legal disputes began between them and Anvar Kholov, he involved two of his friends — Abdulhakim Shafiev and Oyatullo Ismatulloev, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Sino-1 district. They attempted to blame everything on the woman and help Anvar Kholov evade responsibility.

“After my mother and I went to the police, Kholov was detained. However, employees of the prosecutor’s office in Dushanbe, including Jurabek Ismatov and Farhod Rahmatov, helped him get out of the pre-trial detention center in the Shohmansur district,” the woman claims.

Gulchekhra also claims that law enforcement agencies, instead of helping the victims, demanded that Gulchekhra and her mother withdraw their claims. They even threatened her with weapons and murder to make them withdraw their statement and leave the country. According to the woman, the prosecutor’s office initiated criminal cases under articles 307 and 189, accusing her of being a member of the political movement “Group 24” and declared her wanted. She managed to leave for Russia before the official search was announced.

This woman believes that the criminal case against her was initiated by police officers Abdulhakim Shafiev and Oyatullo Ismatulloev. She claims that these two police officers even raped her daughter Fatima to make her withdraw her claims, take back her statement, and return to the country.

“These two police officers first kidnapped my daughter and threatened to send her to Syria or imprison her. Abdulhakim Shafiev and Oyatullo Ismatulloev first raped my daughter and then imprisoned her,” the woman stated.

She noted that her daughter was accused of supporting an opposition group.

“In May 2024, my daughter Fatima was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly writing a comment and liking posts from ‘Group 24’. Neither I nor she have ever used Instagram or other social media. When my mother visited her in prison, she told me what those two police officers did to her in the pre-trial detention center,” said Gulchehra.

Gulchehra claims that in 2022, at the invitation and recommendation of Shafiev, she wrote a letter to the country’s General Prosecutor’s Office, expressing her remorse for her actions and asking for forgiveness; however, they still did not stop pursuing her and her children.

The woman claims that she currently lives in Russia, has only two twin daughters and one mother who worked in a hospital for many years. According to her, she has been detained by the Russian police several times because she was wanted. However, she was later released.

According to the woman with a disability, her only wish today is for high-ranking officials in Tajikistan to learn about her story and help her and her children.

The editorial team of Azda TV does not have the position of the other side regarding the claims made in the article and cannot independently confirm or deny these accusations. However, the editorial team is ready to publish their comments or official position.