Wikipedia: Buzurgmehr Yorov

The English-language Wikipedia article “Buzurgmehr Yorov” covers the Tajik human rights lawyer (born 9 July 1971) and member of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan. The article states that Yorov served as head of the legal firm Sipar and was involved throughout the 2000s in high-profile legal cases representing individuals prosecuted by the government of Tajikistan on charges deemed politically motivated. According to the article, he represented religious figure and former senator Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda in a 2011 defamation case, Islamic Revival Party leader and MP Muhiddin Kabiri in 2013, and in 2014 lawyer Fakhriddin Zokirov (arrested on forgery charges apparently as retaliation for representing businessman-politician Zayd Saidov); Yorov also offered to represent Canada-based PhD student Alexander Sodiqov, whose family declined due to concerns his opposition-party affiliation might politicise the case. The article states that following the September 2015 ban on the Islamic Revival Party (IRPT), its designation as a terrorist organisation, and detention of some 200 members, Yorov took on representing several high-ranking IRPT members. According to the article, on 28 September 2015 he alleged that one arrested IRPT member he represented had been tortured in pretrial detention, alleged authorities had been planting weapons and IEDs on lower-level IRPT members, and announced a committee for the defence of the arrested IRPT members; later the same day, officers from the Police Unit for Combating Organized Crime (UBOP) arrived at Sipar, seized documents, and took him away for questioning. On 29 September 2015 the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced he was detained on charges of swindling and fraud allegedly dating to 2010. The article states that on 2 October 2015 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson expressed concern about “increasing risk of human rights violations” in Tajikistan, the defence committee disbanded, and Sipar disbanded. On 7 October, six human rights groups — including Amnesty International, the Paris Bar, Human Rights Watch, IPHR, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee — demanded his release. The case was classified “top secret” on 14 October. The article states three new charges were added in December 2015 (creating an extremist group, public propagation of extremist ideas, inciting national/racial/religious hostility); trial opened 3 May 2016 at Dushanbe’s Ferdowsi District Court closed to public, journalists, diplomats and OSCE. Sources cited: Human Rights Watch, Asia-Plus, Radio Ozodi, IWPR, The Diplomat, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Freedom Now, OHCHR, ICJ, Law Society of Upper Canada, UK Law Society, Lawyers for Lawyers, BBC.