OMCT: Mamadshoeva arbitrary detention

Published on 31 May 2022 by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders — a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH — this urgent intervention (reference TJK 001 / 0522 / OBS 036, Paris-Geneva) reports on the arbitrary detention of Ulfathonim Mamadshoeva, a prominent human rights defender, journalist and Pamiri minority representative. The document reports that on 17 May 2022 the Ministry of Interior accused her of co-organising an “illegal rally” on 16 May 2022 in Khorog (GBAO), which she denied, saying she was at home in Dushanbe. The report states that on the same day, journalists Anushervon Aripov, Nasim Isamov, Mullorajab Yusufi and Barot Yusufi (Radio Ozodi and Current Times) were attacked by plainclothes men after interviewing Mamadshoeva; Mullorajab Yusufi was beaten and threatened. On 18 May 2022, Mamadshoeva was arrested by the State Commission for State Security; her ex-husband Kholbash Kholbashev was also detained and held incommunicado. On 19 May she was charged under Article 307, part 2 of the Criminal Code (publicly calling for violent change of the constitutional order), facing up to 15 years. The article finds that on 24 May, state TV broadcast a video of both confessing to organising the Khorog protests, with grounds to believe the confessions were coerced. The statement cites around a thousand Khorog protesters on 14 May 2022, at least one death in the dispersal, and the launch of an “anti-terrorist operation” on 18 May 2022.