Prosecutors Seek Lengthy Sentences – The Diplomat

A closed-door trial in Tajikistan is reportedly nearing its end, with prosecutors seeking sentences of 20 to 30 years for eight defendants believed to be plotting a coup.

The authorities have not made official announcements regarding the details of the plot. But Saidjafar Usmonzoda, the leader of the Democratic Party until May 2024, seems to be at the center of the case.

Usmonzoda, a member of parliament, was detained in June. Shortly thereafter, during a request for parliament to lift Usmonzoda’s immunity, Chief Prosecutor Yusuf Rahmon (no relation to President Emomali Rahmon) announced that criminal proceedings were initiated against Usmonzoda under Article 306 “Seizure of power with the use of violence”.

According to reports from both Asia-Plus and the Tajik service RFE/RL, Radio Freedom, On January 8, the Tajik government requested lengthy prison terms for the defendants, who face a variety of charges including treason, usurpation, fraud and incitement.

For Usmonzoda and Hamrohkhon Zarifi, prosecutors are reportedly seeking 30-year prison terms. Elegant served as Tajik Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2013 and was the Ambassador of Tajikistan to Japan from 2015 to 2018 when he retired.

Two Tajik media reported slightly different demands for a sentence for Shakirjon Hakimov, a lawyer and first deputy chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan, or 20 years (Asia-Plus) or 24 (Freedom).

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

Iskandarov was once – for less than two months in 1992 – the acting president of Tajikistan, and recently worked at the Tajik Academy of Sciences after serving as ambassador to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

trailer he was a former press secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was consul in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Komilzodaa former Voice of America journalist until 2011, he was Usmonzoda’s deputy in the Democratic Party.

Ozodi also reported that prosecutors are seeking 26-year sentences for two retired colonels from the State Committee for National Security, Nuramin Ganizoda and Jamshed Boev.

With no official details available and only limited details available through local media, not much can be said about the case. And that’s it exactly the point.

Writing about case in December, I noticed:

Eight men, most of whom are in their 60s and 70s, are being tried together… From the outside, however, the case seems strange. To varying degrees, all of the defendants have spent their lives serving the Tajik state, which has been dominated by President Rahmon and his family since 1992.

Democratic Party [Usmonzoda] led for more than a decade, it was often called a “pocket” party, a kind of nominal opposition within a system that did not tolerate real opposition. It seems utter madness for men with such intimate knowledge of the Tajik state to attempt to orchestrate a coup.