RFERL: 8 TJ politicians on trial for plotting to seize power

The report states that on 14 November 2024 RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported the opening of a closed-door trial of eight former top officials, politicians and public figures in Tajikistan on charges of plotting to forcibly seize power, calling for mass disorder, and inciting hatred. According to the report, proceedings began in a pretrial detention centre in Dushanbe and include former Foreign Minister Hamrohkhon Zarifi, former Foreign Ministry spokesman Abulfaiz Atoi, former parliament speaker Akbarshoh Iskandarov, former Democratic Party leader Saidjafar Usmonzoda, Democratic Party deputy chairman Ahmadshoh Komilzoda, Social Democratic Party deputy chairman Shokirjon Hakimov, and two former senior State Committee for National Security officers, Nuramin Ghanizoda and Jamshed Boev. It records that the Supreme Court has refused to comment, and that the Prosecutor-General’s Office has classified the case materials, so the exact charges are not publicly known. The report says all defendants were arrested over the past year, that it is unknown how seven of them pleaded, and that Hakimov’s associates have said he rejects the charges. Relatives were not allowed to attend and lawyers declined to speak to journalists. The report recalls that in 2015 the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and Group 24 were banned and branded as “terrorist,” and that Group 24 founder Umarali Quvatov was assassinated in Turkey in 2015. It notes that Tajikistan’s Social Democratic Party has remained under sustained political and financial pressure.