Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission: Buzurgmehr Yorov

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission profile “Buzurgmehr Yorov”, hosted on the US Congressional Commission’s Defending Freedoms Project Tajikistan page, documents the case of the imprisoned Tajik human rights lawyer. The report states Yorov was detained since 28 September 2015 on charges of fraud, forgery, publicly insulting the Leader of the Nation, incitement to national, racial, local or religious violence, and contempt of court, receiving a combined 28-year prison sentence. According to the report, Yorov is a prominent Tajik human rights lawyer who represented high-profile individuals politically prosecuted by the government of Tajikistan, including religious figures, opposition politicians and other human rights lawyers. The report states that in early September 2015, Yorov took on the initial representation of 13 members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), an opposition political group, and shortly after announcing his clients had been tortured in pre-trial detention and calling for a coalition of lawyers to represent the detained IRPT members, he was arrested. According to the report, Yorov was sentenced to 23 years in prison on 6 October 2015; before sentencing he read aloud an 11th century Persian poem and authorities then charged him with contempt of court and insulting a government official, leading to an additional 2-year sentence on 16 March 2017, with additional charges brought in August 2017 for a combined 28 years. The report states Yorov was beaten throughout his imprisonment, with beatings intensifying in September 2017 when detention-centre guards allegedly beat him while he was tied to a chair, breaking several of his bones and leaving him with difficulty walking. The report’s updates list include a US Deputy Assistant Secretary-led delegation meeting Tajik officials in October 2018, the Faiziniso Vohidova Human Rights Prize in September 2019, inclusion on the 2019 Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize short list, a six-year sentence reduction under a mass amnesty in November 2019, the Homini Human Rights Prize from People in Need in February 2020, a June 2020 letter from 11 US senators urging release amid COVID-19, inclusion in the US State Department’s #WithoutJustCause Political Prisoners Campaign launched 11 January 2023, and a new fraud charge in April 2023 that could add up to 12 years, with trial on 13 June 2023 resulting from an inmate’s lawsuit that Yorov refuted. Sources cited: Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Freedom Now (advocacy partner), RFE/RL, DW, Ranking Member Menendez press release, US Department of State.