OCCRP: Death of Tajikistan's Islamic Renaissance (IRPT)

The report, part of OCCRP’s “Tajikistan: Money by Marriage” investigation, states that in the summer of 2015 President Emomali Rahmon’s government used a combination of arrest, intimidation and legal technicalities to dismantle the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), a party the report describes as a moderate, democratically oriented movement with up to 50,000 members at its 2007 peak and nationwide grassroots infrastructure. According to the report, IRPT leader Muhiddin Kabiri (who took over after founder Said Abdulloh Nuri’s death in 2006) has since lived in exile. The report documents the state crackdown: after the March 2015 elections denied IRPT its two parliamentary seats, authorities pressured candidates to withdraw, closed the party’s publishing house and central office, opened a criminal case against Kabiri, and forced members across the country to resign, sometimes under torture. One candidate, Yakubov, is quoted describing being held in a dark basement, tortured and forced to sign a statement against the party to secure release. The report states that IRPT was declared a terrorist organisation and banned after the party was accused, without evidence according to Human Rights Watch’s Steve Swerdlow, of involvement in a coup attempt; closed trials led to long sentences, some for life. According to the report, the crackdown expanded to include bans on beards and hijabs, forced shaving, “show trials” of religious Muslims on vague extremism charges, and harassment of exiled members’ families.