Front Line Defenders: Shukhrat Kudratov case history

The case history, compiled by Front Line Defenders, documents the prosecution of Tajik human rights lawyer Shukhrat Kudratov, a leading lawyer for the independent news agency Asia-Plus and named Human Rights Defender of the Year 2011 by the local Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law. According to the report, Kudratov was one of few human rights lawyers in Tajikistan defending opposition activists, victims of police torture and those accused of “religious extremism”. The report states that on 21 July 2014 he was arrested in his Dushanbe office and on 23 July charged with three criminal offences, including attempted bribery of a judge, and placed in pre-trial detention. It notes he had been one of three lawyers representing businessman and opposition figure Zaid Saidov, who was sentenced in November 2013 to 26 years with property confiscation after announcing a new opposition party ahead of the December 2013 presidential elections. On 20 July 2014 Kudratov had issued a public letter to foreign parliaments, governments, embassies and international human rights organisations drawing attention to what he described as violations during the Saidov trial and ongoing persecution of Saidov’s legal team. The report states that on 13 January 2015 Dushanbe City Court sentenced him to nine years in a strict-regime colony under Articles 247 and 320 of the Criminal Code on charges of fraud and bribery and banned him from legal practice. The Supreme Court later reduced the sentence to three years and eight months. The report notes that the anti-corruption agency alleged Kudratov received US$2,500 from a defendant to bribe a judge — an allegation he publicly denied. He was released on 24 August 2018 after four years and one month in detention and remained banned from practising law, with an outstanding fine of approximately €8,000. The report notes another Saidov lawyer, Fakhriddin Zokirov, was separately arrested on fraud charges on 7 March 2014. Source cited: Front Line Defenders case history.