TimesCA: TJ Supreme Court breaks silence on alleged coup case

The report states that on 13 February 2025 Shavkat Lutfullozoda, first deputy chairman of Tajikistan’s Supreme Court, publicly commented for the first time on the closed-door prosecution of a group of senior politicians accused of high treason and attempting to seize power by force. According to the report, he said the case materials indicated their actions were “directly aimed at high treason and the violent seizure of power,” but declined to provide details, citing the closed nature of the trial. The report lists sentences handed down on 5 February 2025 at the Dushanbe Detention Center, including 27 years for former foreign minister Hamrohon Zarifi and for former Democratic Party head Saidjafar Usmonzoda; 21 years for retired GKNB colonel Jamshed Boboyev; 19 years for Akhmadshokh Komilzoda; 18 years each for former Supreme Soviet head Akbarshokh Iskandarov, Social Democratic Party first deputy chairman Shokirjon Khakimov, and retired colonel Nurahmad Ganizoda; 17 years for Abdulfayiz Atoi; and 8 years for journalist Rukhshona Khakimova for complicity in state treason. The report adds that mass arrests began in June 2024 and that the trial, which opened on 14 November 2024, lasted more than six months behind closed doors at a pre-trial detention facility.