HRW: Tajik activist in Germany at risk of deportation

Human Rights Watch dispatch by Syinat Sultanalieva, researcher in the Europe and Central Asia Division, dated 31 October 2024, with an update added following events on 6-7 November. The report states that on 28 October 2024 an administrative court in Kleve, Germany, near the Dutch border, ordered the deportation of Dilmurod Ergashev, a 40-year-old Tajik opposition activist resident in Germany since February 2011. The article finds that Ergashev is a member of Group 24, a banned opposition movement, and part of the Reforms and Development of Tajikistan movement, and that he had taken part in demonstrations in Berlin, including a September 2023 protest during President Emomali Rahmon’s visit. The document reports that German immigration authorities questioned whether his opposition activity was genuine. An update notes that on 6 November he was flown from Düsseldorf Airport and handed to Tajikistani authorities in Dushanbe on 7 November, where witnesses saw him handcuffed with a black bag placed over his head. The report states that Germany had already deported two Tajik dissidents in 2023, Abdullohi Shamsiddin and Bilol Qurbonaliev, who received 7 and 10-year sentences respectively on charges including attempts to overthrow the constitutional order. Internal sources cited include Ergashev’s lawyer and an earlier HRW report on transnational repression.