Alleged Coup Trial in Tajikistan: Prosecutors Seek Lengthy Sentences

[ad_1] A closed-door trial in Tajikistan is reportedly coming to a conclusion, with prosecutors asking for 20-30 yr sentences for eight defendants presumably accused of a coup plot.

The authorities have made no official bulletins relating to the main points of the plot. However Saidjafar Usmonzoda, till Might 2024 the chief of the Democratic Occasion, seems to be on the middle of the case.

Usmonzoda, a member of parliament, was detained in June. Quickly after, in the midst of requesting that parliament revoke Usmonzoda’s immunity, Prosecutor-Common Yusuf Rahmon (no relation to President Emomali Rahmon) introduced {that a} legal case had been opened in opposition to Usmonzoda below Article 306, “Seizure of energy with the usage of violence.”

In line with reporting by each Asia-Plus and RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, Radio Ozodi , on January 8, the Tajik authorities requested lengthy jail phrases for the defendants, who face quite a lot of prices together with treason, seizure of energy, fraud, and incitement.

For Usmonzoda and Hamrohkhon Zarifi, prosecutors are reportedly searching for 30-year jail phrases. Zarifi served as Tajikistan’s international minister from 2006 to 2013 and was Tajikistan’s ambassador to Japan from 2015 till 2018, when he retired.

The 2 Tajik shops reported barely totally different sentence requests for Shakirjon Hakimov, a lawyer and first deputy chairman of the Social Democratic Occasion of Tajikistan, both 20 years ( Asia-Plus ) or 24 ( Ozodi ).

Prosecutors reportedly requested for 23-year sentences for Akbarshoh Iskandarov, Abdulfaiz Atoi, and Ahmadshoh Komilzoda.

Iskandarov was as soon as – for lower than two months in 1992 – appearing president of Tajikistan and extra just lately had labored on the Tajik Academy of Sciences following positions as ambassador to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

Atoi was previously a international ministry press secretary and did stints as consul in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Komilzoda , a former journalist with VOA till 2011, had been Usmonzoda’s deputy within the Democratic Occasion.

Ozodi additionally reported that prosecutors had been searching for 26-year sentences for 2 retired colonels from the State Committee for Nationwide Safety, Nuramin Ganizoda and Jamshed Boev.

With no particulars obtainable formally, and solely restricted particulars obtainable by way of native media, there’s not a lot that may be stated in regards to the case. And that’s exactly the purpose .

Writing in regards to the case in December, I famous:

The eight males, most of them of their 60s and 70s, are on trial collectively… From the surface, nonetheless, the case appears unusual. To various levels, all the accused spent their lives serving the Tajik state, which has been dominated by President Rahmon and his household since 1992.

The Democratic Occasion [Usmonzoda] led for greater than a decade was also known as a “pocket” occasion, a type of nominal opposition inside a system that didn't brook real opposition. It appears full insanity for males with such intimate information of the Tajik state to attempt to orchestrate a coup.