Eurasianet: Tajikistan gags ex-minister with long prison term

The report states that former Tajik Minister of Industry Zayd Saidov was sentenced in December 2013 by a Tajik court to 26 years in prison on charges including bribery, fraud and polygamy, a verdict that rights groups and opposition figures described as politically motivated. The report states that Saidov had resigned from government and launched plans in April 2013 to establish a new political party called “New Tajikistan,” which would have challenged the dominance of President Emomali Rahmon’s People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan. The report states that Saidov was arrested in May 2013 soon after announcing the party and that the charges brought against him were widely interpreted as retaliation for his attempt to create an independent political vehicle. The report states that in 2015 a further three years were added to his sentence on charges of document forgery and illegal privatization, bringing the total to 29 years. The report states that the authorities also pursued members of Saidov’s team, business associates and family, with reports of further prosecutions, harassment and confiscation of assets linked to him. The report states that the case is frequently cited by analysts as a marker of the closure of political space in Tajikistan in the mid-2010s, alongside the banning of the IRPT in 2015 and the designation of Group 24 as extremist.