Skip to main content

Eurasianet

Main Menu

  • Regions
  • Topics
  • Media
  • About
  • Search
  • Newsletter
  • русский
  • Support us
X

Caucasus

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia

Central Asia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Conflict Zones

Abkhazia
Nagorno Karabakh
South Ossetia

Eastern Europe

Belarus
Moldova
Russia
The Baltics
Ukraine

Eurasian Fringe

Afghanistan
China
EU
Iran
Mongolia
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
X

Environment

Economy

Politics

Kazakhstan's Bloody January 2022
Kyrgyzstan 2020 unrest

Security

Society

American diplomats in Central Asia
Arts and Culture
Coronavirus
Student spotlight
X

Visual Stories

Podcast
Video

Blogs

Tamada Tales
The Bug Pit

Podcasts

EurasiaChat
Expert Opinions
The Central Asianist
X
You can search using keywords to narrow down the list.
Tajikistan, Central Asia, Russia

Tajikistan: Illegally deported Pamiri leader gets 18 years in prison

Amriddin Alovatshoyev’s trial lasted only two hours.

May 4, 2022
Alovatshoyev in the video confession broadcast on state television. Alovatshoyev in the video confession broadcast on state television.

A leading figure in Tajikistan’s Pamiri community who was unlawfully spirited out of Russia in January has been sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of hostage-taking.

Witnesses have reported that Amriddin Alovatshoyev’s trial on April 29 lasted only two hours.

Alovatshoyev moved to Russia in 2018 after he was accused by Tajikistan’s authorities of belonging to an organized crime group. Dushanbe’s resolve to extradite him intensified, however, following his involvement in organizing protests in Moscow against a Tajik government crackdown on the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, or GBAO, in November.

RFE/RL’s Tajik service, Radio Ozodi, reported that Alovatshoyev submitted a guilty plea to the GBAO regional court. Many suspect this compliance had been extorted through torture. Shortly after his deportation in January, which was carried out without heed for any legal procedures, Alovatshoyev appeared in a video confession looking drawn and exhausted.

Anxieties have been high for months in the GBAO that the government is poised to launch a security sweep to arrest yet more influential community leaders. One suspected future target of arrest is Mamadbokir Mamadbokirov, whom the authorities also accuse of being a criminal boss.

Confrontations between the central government and GBAO residents have occurred several times over the past decade or so. As conventional opposition politics has been thoroughly crushed by President Emomali Rahmon’s authoritarian regime, influential figures widely suspected to be involved with criminal activities have emerged over that period as the most viable champions of regional autonomy.

A panel of UN experts last month sounded a warning about what they described as the “rising tensions in eastern Tajikistan” and urged authorities to protect the rights of the Pamiri minority living in the area.

“We are deeply troubled by efforts to crack down on protest movements by the Pamiri minority, through arrests, the excessive and unlawful use of force and the involvement of the military. We further call on the authorities to take measures to prevent the spread of the stigmatization against Pamiri protesters,” the experts said in a statement.

 

Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.

Related

China filling void left by USAID’s dismantling
United States has image problem in Central Asia
Hail to the victors! Turkmen football team secures a cup

Popular

Georgian government’s ‘deep state’ bromance with Trump remains unrequited
Irakli Machaidze
China filling void left by USAID’s dismantling
Georgia: Watchdog groups document systematic government abuses
Irakli Machaidze

Eurasianet

  • About
  • Team
  • Contribute
  • Republishing
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact
Eurasianet © 2025