Радио Озоди: Court sentences two members of "Commission 44" from GBAO to 18 years' imprisonment

Radio Ozodi / Azattyq Asia report by Mirzonabi Kholikzod (Мирзонаби Холикзод), published on 30 June 2022, states that a court in Dushanbe sentenced two members of “Commission 44” (“Комиссия 44”) — a body set up by GBAO civil-society representatives to follow the investigation into the November 2021 events in Badakhshan — to 18 years’ imprisonment.

The article names the two defendants as Khujamri Pirnazarov (Худжамри Пирназаров) and Shaftolu Bekdavlatov (Шафтолу Бекдавлатов). The article reports the verdict was delivered on 29 June 2022 behind closed doors and that neither the court nor the prosecutor’s office provided comment. A GBAO civil-society representative, speaking from Khorog, told Radio Ozodi on 30 June that the two were accused of “organising an unsanctioned rally” and that earlier in the week the state prosecutor had sought 20-year sentences.

The article recalls that “Commission 44” was formed in Khorog after the November 2021 events from among civil-society activists, and that six of its members had been incorporated into a group of investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Tajikistan looking into the Khorog events.

The article states the situation in Khorog escalated on 25 November 2021 when Gulbiddin Ziyobekov (Гулбиддин Зиёбеков), a resident of Roshtkala (Рошткалинский) district, was killed during a security operation; residents subsequently protested outside the regional administration building for four days, during which two further people were killed and 17 wounded. About ten members of the group were detained in Khorog at the end of May 2022 after a security-force operation and taken to Dushanbe, the article reports, with sources indicating suspicions of receiving funds from Europe-based opposition figures. Officially 16 people were killed and 220 detained in the May operation; unofficial figures put deaths at around 40.