RFE/RL: Opposition activist — 'I was kidnapped by the Tajik government' (Gadoev)

The report, published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on 7 March 2019, accompanies a 2-minute 5-second video interview with Tajik opposition activist Sharofiddin Gadoev following his return to Europe. The report states that Gadoev, based in the Netherlands, had sworn he would never voluntarily return to his home country. According to the report, Gadoev says that government agents seized him in Moscow, beat him, and sent him back to Tajikistan. The report notes a video caption reading “When they put me in the car, they handcuffed me”, indicating that the video interview covers Gadoev’s account of being physically restrained during his abduction. The web page itself consists primarily of the embedded video player and a short introductory paragraph, with the bulk of the factual detail contained in the video footage rather than the written text. The report forms part of RFE/RL’s broader coverage of the Gadoev abduction case from February and March 2019. Readers seeking fuller written accounts of the abduction, his detention in a basement of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, staged videos, treatment of his family, and eventual release on 2 March 2019 following intervention by the Dutch and German foreign ministries should consult the longer investigations by OCCRP, the Human Rights Foundation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and other RFE/RL reports covering the same events in more detail.