TajikPress: Arrest of Abdukhalil Kholikzoda, director of Ibn Sina hospital

TajikPress, dated 12 August 2023, reports that Abdukhalil Kholikzoda (Абдухалил Холиқзода / Абдухалил Холикзода), Tajik entrepreneur and founder-director of the Ibn Sina (Ибни Сино) hospital in Dushanbe, was detained by authorities and held in a pre-trial detention facility in the Firdavsi district of Dushanbe since 7 August 2023. The article states that, according to sources of the Bomdod (Бомдод) news site speaking anonymously on 12 August, Kholikzoda was detained by the Organised Crime Directorate (UBOP/УБОП) of the Interior Ministry, and after his arrest staff removed his controversial memoir “Ҳаводиси рӯзгори ман” (Events of my life) from bookshops and libraries. The article reports that one passage in the book — an anecdote about a young woman assaulted in Afghanistan after fleeing from the Khovaling mountains across the Amu in the 1920s — and Kholikzoda’s remarks on the character traits of different regional groups had sparked social-media disputes, with some users accusing him of regionalism (mahalgaroi) and denigrating other regions’ residents; the article states Kholikzoda categorically denied this. A staff member of the Ibn Sina hospital told Bomdod on 12 August that rumours were circulating that the director had been detained or fled, that staff were whispering about it, and confirmed Kholikzoda had not been at work since 7 August. On 11 August, opposition figure Dodojon Atovulloev (Додоҷон Атовуллоев) was the first to report the detention on Facebook, stating that in June he had warned influential persons had targeted Kholikzoda’s business. The article reports that on 8 August — one day after the arrest — police together with the Rudaki jamoat chair removed around 50 copies of Kholikzoda’s books from the village library and the Rudaki mausoleum library in Panjrud village, his birthplace. “Ҳаводиси рӯзгори ман” was his second memoir after “Моҷарои рафта” and had been published in March 2023. In it, he criticised corruption and the absence of a free business environment, mentioning the imprisonment of Maruf Oripov (Маъруф Орипов), founder of the Orima store chain. Kholikzoda was born on 20 December 1966 in Panjrud; he studied Oriental studies at Tajik State University. The Ibn Sina hospital opened in September 2009 with Iranian investors. Sources: Bomdod; Radio Ozodi; Dodojon Atovulloev.