Document #1218119
HRW – Human Rights Watch (Author)
(Berlin) – The government of Moldova should ensure that Tajik opposition activist Sobir Valiev is not extradited or otherwise returned to Tajikistan, where he faces possible torture or ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. Sobir Valiev, deputy head of the Congress of Constructive Forces of Tajikistan, a peaceful opposition group, was detained on August 11, 2015, at the request of the Tajik government by Moldovan migration police in the Chisinau airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul. Tajik authorities are pursuing Valiev’s extradition on extremism charges that appear politically motivated and in retaliation for his peaceful political opposition activity.
“It is no secret that Tajikistan has a serious problem with torture and that it is actively hunting down political opposition figures,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia division director at Human Rights Watch. “Moldova has an obligation not to return anyone to a country where he or she could face torture or ill-treatment and should abide by those international commitments.”
Valiev’s relatives told Human Rights Watch that in late 2014 and early 2015, Tajikistan’s security services interrogated them on several occasions in Dushanbe, threatening “serious consequences” if Valiev did not return to Tajikistan. At the time, Valiev was living in Kyrgyzstan and frequently traveling to Turkey for business.Tajik authorities have charged Valiev with “public calls for carrying out extremist activity” (art. 307(1)(2)) and “organizing an extremist community” (art. 307(2)(1)) of Tajikistan’s criminal code, charges they have used in a number of cases that appear politically motivated.
Following an August 14 court hearing in Moldova, Valiev is in a temporary detention facility in Chisinau.
“Valiev urgently needs protection,” Williamson said. “Moldovan authorities should make sure they don’t send him back to Tajikistan, where it’s clear he is at serious risk of abuse and wouldn’t get a fair trial.”
In the last year, Tajik authorities have dramatically widened a crackdown on the political opposition. In another recent case, on July 24, a Dushanbe court sentenced a peaceful youth activist, Maksud Ibragimov, to 17 years in prison on similar charges for extremism following a deeply flawed trial.
Ibragimov is the leader of the opposition group Tajikistan’s Youth for Revival. He is a Russian citizen, and had lived in Moscow for over 10 years. He was detained in October 2014 on a Tajik extradition request, but then released. In November 2014, unidentified assailants stabbed him six times on a Moscow street.
On January 20, 2015, his relatives reported that police from Moscow’s Preobrazhenskaya district detained him, took him to a police station, and told him to write a witness statement about the stabbing. Witnesses reported that as soon as he left the police station, several unidentified people kidnapped him, drove him to the airport, and forced him onto a plane to Dushanbe, where he was arrested when he landed. Ibragimov told his lawyer later that he had been tortured into telling the Tajik press that he had returned to Tajikistan voluntarily.
In another case, on July 15, Belarusian authorities detained a peaceful Tajik activist, Shabnam Khudoydodova, in the city of Brest, as she was crossing the Russian-Belarusian border. Khudoydodova, a member of “Group 24” who lives in St. Petersburg, had also publicly called for democratic reforms in Tajikistan. After learning on July 12 that Tajik authorities might be preparing to kidnap or forcibly return her to Tajikistan, Khudoydodova fled Russia to Belarus, where she had planned to apply for refugee status with the United Nations refugee agency in Minsk. Tajik authorities have also charged her with extremism and are seeking her extradition.
“Tajikistan’s opposition is under serious attack,” Williamson said. “Dushanbe has no business retaliating against people who are speaking out peacefully, and other governments shouldn’t be complicit in their crackdown or violate their clear cut and absolute obligations under international law.”