HRW: Release government critic

Published by Human Rights Watch (Toronto) on 20 May 2016, this news release calls for the release of Tajik businessman and government critic Abubakr Azizkhodzhaev, detained since February 2016. The report states that he was arrested on 26 February 2016 at his home in Dushanbe, initially told he was being held as a witness, then charged under Article 189 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code (“inciting national, racial, regional, or religious hatred”) after criticising President Emomali Rahmon’s son-in-law Shamsullo Sohibov for alleged corrupt business practices. The document reports that on 4 March 2016 he was transferred to Dushanbe pretrial isolation centre (SIZO) No. 1. The article finds that Azizkhodzhaev owns Durnamo, a printing business that produced license plates under government contract; in 2009 the contract was transferred to Faroz, a company co-owned at the time by Sohibov. The document reports that Durnamo’s printing equipment later disappeared and ended up with Faroz; Azizkhodzhaev wrote an “Open Letter to the President” published in independent newspapers. The report states relatives reported limited jail access, items not passed on, burns on his body seen in the first week of May, and a limp observed in the second week of May. Azizkhodzhaev told relatives officials had beaten him. Steve Swerdlow, HRW Central Asia researcher, is quoted.