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Rights Watchdog Calls On EU States, Turkey Not To Return Tajik Dissidents
Self-exiled Tajik oppositionist Sulaimon Davlatov was sent to pretrial detention in Lithuania earlier this month. (file photo)
April 16, 2024
By RFE/RL
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on several EU countries and Turkey to refrain from sending Tajik dissidents taking shelter in their countries back to Tajikistan.
Several individuals linked to the banned Tajik opposition movement Group 24 who were residing in EU members Lithuania and Poland as well as Turkey have disappeared or been threatened with being extradited back to Tajikistan over the past several months.
On April 8, self-exiled Tajik opposition activist and ex-member of Group 24 Sulaimon Davlatov was sent to pretrial detention for two months by a court in Lithuania on a charge related to an alleged violation of the Baltic nation's national security.
The 40-year-old Davlatov, who has lived in Lithuania for nine years, is known for his online criticism of Tajik authorities. In 2015, the former member of Group 24 and the Congress of Constructive Forces opposition movements, was detained in Finland at the request of Tajik authorities, but later released.
Komron Khudoydodov, a brother of former Group 24 activist Shabnam Khudoydodova, was ordered by a Warsaw court to leave Poland, where he has been living since 2018 on a humanitarian visa, after his asylum request was rejected. His sister was charged with extremism and placed by Tajik authorities on Interpol's red-notices list in 2015.
Nasimjon Sharifov and Suhrob Zafar, two senior members of Group 24, disappeared in Turkey in February and last month respectively. Zafar has resided in Turkey since 2014, where he received multiple threats that he would be abducted and sent back to Tajikistan. Sharifov and Zafar had previously been detained in 2018 by the Turkish authorities at the request of Dushanbe but were eventually released.
In March 2015, Group 24's founder, businessman Umarali Quvatov, was assassinated in Istanbul. The group, which has been promoting democratic reforms in Tajikistan, was banned by the Tajik government and designated a terrorist organization in 2014.
“Tajikistan should unequivocally end its decade-long hunt of perceived critics abroad, especially those related to Group 24 and other banned groups,” said HRW's Syinat Sultanalieva.
“The EU and Turkey should protect opposition activists and refrain from returning them to Tajikistan, a country known for engaging in transnational repression, where they risk being tortured.”
The two EU member states and Turkey "should denounce cases of transnational repression and review any cooperation agreements with states engaged in targeting critics abroad,” the New York-based rights watchdog said.
Copyright © Apr 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 conncwsecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. http://www.rferl.org
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